Vive Studios’ latest project will let you visit the Berlin Wall – before it fell

Vive Studios has announced a new funding and development program that seeks to get virtual reality experiences to more people in the form of art installations and VR museum exhibits. The HTC subdivision announced early partnerships for the initiative with museums such as the Somerset House in London, and The National Palace Museum in Taiwan.

“Some of the earlier museum VR experiences, or full-stop VR museums, were basically taking scanning artifacts and photographs and putting them in a virtual museum you could walk around in. We looked at that and felt that it wasn’t very compelling,” head of the studio Joel Breton told us. “We’re going to create virtual reality content and experiences that will show people how immersive technology can make their learning experience even richer.”

One example is Berlin Wall: The Virtual Reality Experience, an exhibit that’s currently available at Newseum in Washington DC. The installation replicates the experience of being there from multiple perspectives, including people on the west side of the wall, and soldiers standing guard atop it.

“It’s chilling,” he said. “It’s absolutely chilling. You’re fully immersed in 360 degrees, you can look around, and you feel like you’re there. That’s the power of virtual reality for us, especially on room-scale and Vive that we have to work from. The power is that we can take the user anywhere in the entire universe throughout all of time for historical experiences like this.”

Vive Studios was created in December of 2016 to kickstart first-party content for the HTC Vive VR headset. In contrast with the HTC Vive’s partnership with game company Valve, Vive Studios was started with the specific goal of expanding VR experiences beyond the realm of gaming. 

Breton explained that as both planned exhibits and future ones are rolled over the next few years, some will also be available in Viveport, HTC’s VR app store. Outside of Vive Studios, HTC sponsors Vive X, a global accelerator program with the goal of cultivating “the VR startup ecosystem.” The company seems determined to not only expand access to VR experiences, but also make sure HTC plays an important role in shaping the future of the medium.

“It’s definitely a stepping stone on the way to where we get to exponential adoption of VR as a mass medium. We think a lot of people that’ll experience this content will be first time VR users. What we’ve learned from our partners is that the age range is from eight to eighty that will view the collections, depending on the museum. There are still seven and half billion people that haven’t tried premium VR.”

Breton stated that the exhibits would be supporting the HTC Vive headset, but also confirmed that museums and art galleries have expressed interest in the future standalone VR headset from HTC, which has yet to be unveiled. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not the masses are really ready for this technology in museums, but it’s a big move to ensure that HTC and Vive Studios stay relevant in the future of the VR space.

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DKNY Minute hybrid smartwatch merges tech and fashion for a neglected audience

The DKNY Minute is further proof the fashion world is really taken with the concept of the hybrid smartwatch. Rightly so. It’s the ideal device to introduce loyal fans of a brand to new technology, as they require little setup, no charging, and work with most smartphones. The DKNY Minute is the brand’s first wearable, and rather than being made for men or as a unisex device, it’s expressly made for women — a rarity in the world of wearables.

DKNY’s Minute hybrid smartwatch comes in three different 38mm stainless steel body styles: A plain silver and a plain gold, plus a fetching silver and gold combination. The gold model has a bold DKNY branded watch face, while the other two versions have more subtle, traditional styles. The body is matched with three different strap options, a black or white leather and a quilted red strap. DKNY includes a second quilted pinstripe strap made from silicone with each watch. Each is interchangeable, so if you own several it’s quick and easy to change the look.

Functionality is similar to most other hybrid smartwatches. Receive a notification on your phone and the watch will vibrate and the hands move to a designated number, identifying the app source of the alert. The watch functions as a fitness tracker with steps, calories, and distance covered being recorded, plus if it’s worn to bed it will track your sleep, too. The buttons on the side can be used to control music playback on your phone, or as a remote shutter release for the camera. Other features include adding different time zones, and to remotely force your phone to ring it gets lost.

A coin cell battery powers the DKNY Minute, and they typically last for five to six months, making the watch very low maintenance compared to a full Android Wear smartwatch, or the Apple Watch. A DKNY Minute app is required to link the watch to your phone, and it’s available for both Android and iOS. The black and gold versions are ready to buy from DKNY’s website for $155, but at the time of writing the silver/gold model isn’t listed. It’s likely to be slightly more expensive when it arrives.

DKNY’s Minute hybrid smartwatch joins other examples available from fashion brands, including Tory Burch, Kate Spade, and Emporio Armani. The early EA Connected hybrid was followed later by a full Android Wear smartwatch, meaning if the Minute is well received by DKNY fans, a similar DKNY Android Wear smartwatch may follow in the future. It’ll be good news, as unlike hybrid smartwatches, only a few Android Wear watches are designed for women.

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Best Buy’s Black Friday ad is here with a 50-inch 4K TV for $180 and more

Best Buy’s Black Friday ad may have you thinking about lining up on Thanksgiving!

Black Friday will be here before you know it, and there’s no better time to start preparing than now. Best Buy’s Black Friday ad is usually one of the most anticipated ads of the season, and this year the retailer doesn’t disappoint.

• Best Buy 2017 Black Friday Ad Analysis
• Best Buy 2017 Black Friday Ad Scan

Best Buy will be open from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Thanksgiving and will re-open at 8 a.m. on Black Friday. The retailer won’t be waiting for Thanksgiving to start the fun, though. There are already a bunch of deals that you can purchase at Black Friday pricing, and new doorbusters will be announced on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Some of the hottest deals that we’ve spotted include a $180 Sharp 50-inch 4K TV, up to $100 off Sonos speakers, $30 Amazon Fire Tablets, $100 Amazon Cloud Cameras, and various other tech and smart home goodies.

There will be video games starting at $25, the Nintendo Switch will be widely available, and 4K Blu-ray’s will start at just $10.

Check out the Thrifter Black Friday Hub

Samsung Gear Fit2 Pro review: The best fitness tracker for most people

Samsung’s latest waterproof fitness tracker is smarter — and cheaper — than many smartwatches.

It’s taken a few years, but Samsung’s wearable strategy has settled — as has much of the industry — on fitness as its primary selling point. This year’s crop of wrist-worn products from the Korean giant include the excellent Gear Sport, along with the Gear Fit2 Pro, both with the intention of making it easy to track steps and workouts while receiving notifications.

In other words, the value proposition hasn’t changed dramatically from the original Gears of a few years ago, but the 2017 refreshes put an emphasis on durability, longevity, and comfort.

See at Amazon

Gear Fit2 Pro What you’ll love

The Fit2 Pro is the direct successor to last year’s Fit2, and besides the new strap design, the two could be interchangeable — at least on the surface. With a 1.5-inch vertical OLED display that gets really bright, the Tizen-based interface — black background throughout to lengthen battery life — is easy to understand and extremely touch-friendly. Samsung has this down pat.

• Display: 1.5 inches 216×432 pixels
• OS: Tizen
• Price: $169.99
• Processor: Dual Core (1GHz Exynos 3250)
• RAM: 512MB
• Storage: 4GB
• Weight: 34 grams
• Size: 25 x 51.3 x 12.6 mm
• Wireless: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS
• Sensors: Heart rate, Accelerometer, Gyro, Barometer
• Battery: 200mAh (three to five days)
• Colors: Red+black, black
• Compatibility: Android + iOS

While 2016’s Gear Fit2 had a built-in GPS, it wasn’t waterproof, which has since been corrected in its sequel. Not only can the Fit2 Pro plumb the depths of your average pool, it’s certified waterproof to 5 atmospheres — even if you dive to the bottom of a pool, it’ll survive. The red plastic casing has two buttons on the right, one to go back to the previous screen and the other to enter the app drawer, and they’re both clicky and responsive. No complaints there.

The Fit2 Pro lives up to its name: it effortlessly tracks workouts, automatically after 10 minutes or as directed by you when engaging in something specific like a bike ride or swim, and records a number of worthwhile metrics including heart rate, steps taken, floor climbed, and more.

It actually takes heart rate measurements constantly throughout the day, similar to the latest Fitbits, and does so with accuracy; I wore a Fitbit Ionic on another wrist for a day and found the metrics to be close enough to satisfy me. I’m no athlete; I just want a fairly robust approximation of my steps taken, calories burned, and route taken. That the Fit2 Pro is comfortable enough to wear the whole day without noticing it is helpful, too.

All of those things are table stakes for a so-called fitness tracker, but the Fit2 Pro emulates a smartwatch in a number of impactful ways; it shows notifications in a dedicated area to the left of the watch face, and even allows users to action them — reply to a text message, for instance — in certain situations. Generally, if you can reply to a message on an Android Wear watch, you can do the same here (though only with a selection of canned responses or emoji).

Notifications are easily one of my favorite aspects of the Fit2 Pro; it’s ostensibly a fitness tracker, but it conveys what’s happening on your phone better than the more-expensive Fitbit Ionic, and about as well as its “real” smartwatch counterpart, the Gear Sport. Yes, the long-and-thin screen wraps sentences oddly at times, but it requires less scrolling as a result, and the touchscreen is capable of keeping up. I missed the Gear Sport’s rotating bezel, but not as much as I thought.

Finally, battery life is the cherry on this smart milkshake. It’s really, really good — like three days plus from this little 200mAh cell. Mind you, I didn’t regularly run with GPS turned on because I always have my phone with me, but Samsung promises nine hours when engaging the GPS. That’s pretty good, but not remarkable when compared to the Gear Sport or Fitbit Ionic.

Gear Fit2 Pro What you’ll hate

Don’t expect to track your sleep properly with this tracker — rather, use it as a bedside clock.

I don’t think you’ll hate anything about the Gear Fit2 Pro, but here’s what you’ll leave wanting, especially if coming from an Android Wear or Apple Watch — apps. While the tracker comes with a handful of decent first-party and third-party apps from the likes of Under Armour (MapMyRun and Endomondo) for tracking runs, and Speedo Go for tracking swims, the Galaxy Apps “store” is, as it is on the Gear S series, a wasteland of expensive, poorly-designed watch faces.

The actual app downloading and update procedure is less than convenient, too, showing just how far Samsung still has to go when it comes to designing and curating its software experiences. Even the sparse Spotify app, which for some reason isn’t pre-installed on the tracker, is basic to a fault and difficult to use.

On the tracking side, you’ll probably find fault with the sleep tracking, should you choose to use it. I wore the Fit2 Pro to bed for a week or so and found the metrics to be almost useless.

Moreover, the screen doesn’t automatically turn itself off once it detects you’re snug in bed, which makes for constant disruption unless you explicitly enable Do Not Disturb — which requires disabling it in the morning. These things are automated on Android Wear.

I’m also not a huge fan of the rubbery, cheap-feeling strap. While the latch design is an improvement over the more sporty (and uglier) button clasp that shipped on last year’s Fit2, the 24mm replaceable straps on the Fit2 Pro are neither robust nor attractive. Thankfully, Amazon has plenty of alternatives that look and feel better.

Finally — and this is no big deal, really — I dislike the plasticky charging dock that, somehow, always seems to fall over when the tracker is magnetically latched to it. Didn’t Samsung test it?! At least, when properly supported, the Fit2 Pro dock doubles as a nice bedside clock.

Should you buy it? Yes!

I really like the Samsung Fit2 Pro. Yes, it’s not as robust a smart thing as some other trackers out there, but at its current price of $170, it’s a steal. The screen is out-of-this-world good, and the tracking is fantastic for those who’d rather be reinforced with kind messages and automatic number crunching than to-the-millimeter perfection.

At the same time, the notification system on the Fit2 Pro is better than some smartwatches (coughFitbitIoniccough), and even most of the negatives are nitpicks.

The Fit2 Pro goes up against the Fitbit Blaze, Garmin Vivosport, TomTom Spark 3 Cardio and a Series 1 Apple Watch, and it largely comes out ahead against all of them. If you’re looking for more accurate fitness tracking or better sleep metrics, you’re better off with a Garmin or a Fitbit, but nothing touches Samsung for an all-around experience.

And, wow, that screen.

See at Best Buy

Samsung Gear Sport review: The company’s best smartwatch yet

Are you using a screen protector on the Note 8’s curved display?

The Note 8’s curved display looks great, but it makes applying a screen protector nearly impossible.

There’s a lot we can say about Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, but one of its hallmark features is its massive 6.3-inch curved AMOLED display. This display is a true beauty for watching movies, playing games, and browsing the web, but as some of our forum users are quickly discovering, it’s not necessarily the most practical thing in the world.

Because of the Note 8’s curved edges, a lot of our forum users are having a tough time trying to apply a screen protector to the thing. This is an issue that all phones with curved displays are susceptible to, but it’s even more pronounced on the Note 8 due to its ginormous size.

Here’s what some of you have had to say.

pasva007
11-01-2017 04:05 PM

“

After several attempts with tempered glass and film screen protectors, I give up. The curved screen seems to make it impossible for the screen protectors to adhere for any length of time. Aside from not adhering, the tempered glass screen protectors I’ve tried caused a significant reduction in response to the touchscreen. Looking at reviews, it doesn’t appear there is any screen protector for…

Reply

durandetto
11-01-2017 06:57 PM

“

I haven’t used a screen protector since the s8+ they make the experience with the phone unbearable. That and it was costing too much money trying to find one that worked. I do however have a little nick in the screen on the curve. It’s not really noticeable, but I know it’s there. Still not as bad as dealing with a crappy screen cover.

Reply

Morty2264
11-02-2017 10:23 AM

“

I understand what you are saying, OP. My phone has a curved screen too; which definitely affects the placement of the screen protector.

I would recommend a plastic one, as they are less expensive and wouldn’t set you as far back; but after going from plastic to tempered glass, myself, I definitely understand that you’d wanna stick with glass if anything.

How cautious are you with your…

Reply

bassjo
11-02-2017 08:09 PM

“

Yeah, I’ve been looking through it and have only seen lots of recommendations for the use of screen protectors… I got a screen protector at the Verizon store when I bought the phone and in two weeks the corner started to peel. I didn’t realize it was doing this until I noticed the lack of sensitivity when trying to drag the notification bar down. Since then I ripped it off and have rocked it…

Reply

If you’re rocking Samsung’s latest, we’d like to know – Are you using a screen protector with the Note 8?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

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HTC’s VR arts program brings exhibits to your home

Virtual reality is arguably a good medium for art: it not only enables creativity that just isn’t possible if you stick to physical objects, it allows you to share pieces that would be difficult to appreciate staring at an ordinary computer screen. And HTC knows it. The company is launching Vive Arts, a “multi-million dollar” program that helps museums and other institutions fund, develop and share art in VR. And yes, this means apps you can use at home… including one that’s right around the corner.

The first project to officially arrive under the Vive Arts banner is Modigliani, a collaboration with London’s Tate Modern museum that will showcase its namesake artist’s work in VR. Once the exhibition opens on November 23rd, you’ll both get an “integrated” VR experience if you visit the museum and a Viveport app you can use in your den.

HTC is promising over a dozen art projects on launch, including team-ups with the UK’s Royal Academy of Arts, the French National Museum of Nature, the Newseum (for a Berlin Wall exhibit, shown above) and Taiwan’s National Palace Museum. Will this persuade you to get a VR headset? Probably not, at least not by itself — gaming and 360-degree video are still VR’s core uses right now. This helps make a stronger case for VR as a creative medium, though, and might just expand VR’s audience. Whatever HTC spends on Vive Arts might be worthwhile if it leads to greater acceptance of VR and a wave of first-time Vive headset buyers.

Source: Vive Arts

The Morning After: Wednesday, November 8th 2017

Hey, good morning!

Welcome to Wednesday. The FBI battles with smartphone encryption once again, there’s a new type of energy fusion and we struggle with shaving a giant’s leg in Your Hands Are Feet.

A digital wallet is only as trustworthy as the software that manages it.
Code mistake freezes up to $280 million in digital currency

Digital wallet company Parity is warning its users that a large volume of Ethereum funds have effectively been frozen after one coder accidentally deleted the library needed to use multi-signature wallets (those that require more than one signature to move funds) created after July 20th. They triggered a long-unpatched bug that turned Parity’s wallet contract into a standard multi-signature wallet, making every wallet suicide and erase the guiding library code.

Whether or not you believe it was a mistake, it could have very serious consequences. Observers estimate there could be more than one million in ether locked away, which would amount to roughly $280 million.

Prime Video is nearly everywhere now, so this gives folks a way to watch it.
Amazon made a budget Fire TV Stick for the rest of the world

Amazon has unveiled the Fire TV Stick Basic Edition in over 100 countries, including Canada, France, Italy and Spain. It costs €60 in Europe but has been temporarily marked down to €40 for Prime customers. Amazon recently launched Prime Video around the world (both with and without the regular Prime service). The Fire TV Stick Basic Edition comes with quad-core processor, 1GB of memory and 8GB of storage, so despite the name, it appears to be the same as the $40 Fire TV Stick currently sold in the US. The main difference is that the US version comes with an Alexa remote that can take voice commands, while the Basic Edition has, well, a basic remote.

Back to basics.
Microsoft will create game studios to ensure more Xbox One exclusives

Microsoft has been chasing Sony in console sales for years and has subsequently entered a pattern of shuttering internal studios and cancelling games. Now, according to an interview with Xbox chief Phil Spence, the Washington-based company is going to do the opposite: start or acquire studios to develop more games and software in-house.

This is sure to reignite the encryption debate.
The FBI can’t unlock the Texas church shooter’s phone

At a press conference, an FBI official investigating the man who killed 26 people in a Texas church last Sunday said the agency can’t open the shooter’s encrypted phone. The agent painted the issue as a growing concern among law enforcement at all levels who can’t access data on devices without their owner’s credentials.

A room-scale VR adventure
‘Your Hands Are Feet’ puts you inside a psychedelic egg yolk

Let’s get weird. We explore the first of four immersive-media projects coming from our Alternate Realities grant program. The bizarre world of Your Hands Are Feet will debut, along with four other prize-winning immersive-media projects, at the Engadget Experience on November 14th, 2017. For more information about the Engadget Experience and to grab a ticket, check out all the details here.

But wait, there’s more…

• Quark fusion makes 10 times as much energy as nuclear fusion
• The surprising Islamic beauty of ‘Engare’
• NVIDIA GPUs are ‘Star Wars’ merch now
• What we’re playing: ‘Super Beat Sports’ and ‘Animal Crossing’

Uber works with NASA to get flying taxis ready by 2020

They say the best revenge is living well, and so in the midst of its ongoing and messy breakup with London, Uber has proven it’s doing just fine thank you very much by signing an agreement with NASA to develop software for its proposed flying taxi project, Elevate.

At a speech at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Uber’s head of product Jeff Holden revealed the company has signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA to create the air traffic control system that will manage its low-flying taxi fleet, which it aims to have in the air by 2020. The company also announced that a third test city, Los Angeles, has been added to the program, joining Dallas-Fort Worth and Dubai. According to Uber, its UberAIR service could compress a one and a half hour journey from LAX to the Staples Center during rush hour to under 30 minutes.

Uber released a slick video, seen above, alongside its announcement, illustrating just how it envisions the Elevate service being used. It closes with the line “closer than you think”. With NASA’s clout behind the project, the idea of a flying taxi service is not only closer, but a whole lot more credible, too.

Via: The Verge

Source: Reuters

Aldi’s latest bargain is a 3D printer

When you think of Aldi, you’ll likely picture low-priced fresh fruit and veg, cheap alcohol and metal bins full of “Specialbuys”. Each week, it’s a lottery on whether there’s a special on power tools, slow cookers or bedding. But what about a 3D printer? The budget retailer announced today that it will become the first UK supermarket to stock such a gadget with its £300 Balco 3D Printer.

According to Aldi, the printer is easy to set up and the print quality is on par with models worth three times the price. It features touchscreen controls, step-by-step wizards and can also print directly from an SD card.

The 3D printer will be available via the Aldi website from November 23rd, alongside a 55-inch 4K LED Smart TV (with three HDMI ports) and “Premium” Bluetooth soundbar that supports AirPlay and Spotify. They’ll go on sale for £430 and £130 respectively.

While Aldi suggests its products are just as good as Samsung’s MU7000 panel and Bose’s SoundTouch 300 Wireless Sound Bar, we’d suggest you pore over the specifications once they become available before putting any money down.

Deliveroo’s delivery fee-dodging subscription is going nationwide

Like any addiction, a Deliveroo dependency can get pretty expensive between the cost of food and the £2.50 delivery fee. But Deliveroo isn’t your average peddler, and earlier this year it launched a subscription service that offered power users the option to dodge all delivery fees in exchange for a fixed monthly payment. After ‘trialling’ Deliveroo Plus in Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brighton and York, the company has said today it’s expanding the service nationwide. It’s cheaper than it was initially, too, now costing £8 per month instead of £9, though there’s no longer the option of getting a discount by paying for a year upfront.

As of today, Deliveroo Plus is now available in 45 towns and cities — this includes London, by the way — with further rollouts planned in the coming months as Deliveroo takes the subscription UK-wide. During the first two months, Deliveroo says half of all users dodge around £25 in delivery fees, with the greediest 10 percent saving £75. To check whether you’re covered by the expansion on day one, head to your account page within the app, where the option to sign up will present itself. And if it’s not there? Well, you don’t have to completely break up with UberEats just yet then, do you?

Via: Business Insider