Grab a new Samsung Galaxy Tab E from Verizon for just $10 and change per month

Samsung and Verizon have buddied up to bring the 2017 version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab E to Verizon, offering a decently powerful tablet that should be perfect for those bed-based Netflix binges at a reasonable price.

The news isn’t all that surprising — Verizon has offered previous iterations of the Samsung Galaxy Tab E, and while the tablet certainly isn’t flagship quality, it still has a lot to offer.

Under the hood, the specs aren’t amazing but they should offer plenty for most basic users. The device offers 1.5GB of RAM, coupled with 32GB of storage — though thankfully if you want more storage you can get more through the MicroSD card slot. The battery on the tablet comes in at 5,000mAh, which is capable of lasting 24 hours of use on a single charge. The display comes in at 8.0-inches, with a resolution of 1280 x 800.

When it comes to software, the device ships with Android 7.1.1 Nougat, and it’s unlikely that this tablet will be a focus for Samsung to bring to Android 8.0 Oreo.

Perhaps the best thing about the tablet is that it comes with support for 4G LTE, so if you’re looking for a budget tablet that you can bring on the road with you and not lose a data connection, then this may well be the right tablet for you. The rear-facing camera on the tablet comes in at 5 megapixels, while the front-facing cam is 2 megapixels. Safe to say, you probably won’t be buying this tablet for its camera.

So how much will the new Galaxy Tab E on Verizon set you back? Well, you have a few options. You can get the tablet for as little as $10.41 per month for 24 months, $150 with a two-year contract, or you can just pay $250 outright to get the tablet without having to deal with plans or monthly payments.

The Galaxy Tab E is an entry-level tablet, and while it may seem enticing there also may be better options for you in your price range. If you’re looking for something slightly more powerful, it may be worth looking into Samsung’s Galaxy Tab A series, which is a little more expensive but has a lot to offer.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Samsung Galaxy Note 8 vs. Galaxy S8 Plus: S Pen not the only difference
• Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab A is designed for everyone in the family
• Essential Phone vs. Galaxy S8: Can a newcomer beat the reigning champ?
• Battle for the Android throne: Can the Google Pixel 2 best Samsung’s Galaxy S8?
• The best tablets you can buy

MetroPCS is now throwing in a free year of Amazon Prime for new customers

A similar offer to its competitors, but with a couple caveats.

In April, AT&T added a free HBO subscription to some of its unlimited plans. T-Mobile followed suit in September by giving all of its customers free access to Netflix, and most recently, Sprint announced that its subscribers will soon have access to Hulu for no extra charge. MetroPCS is the next carrier to run a similar promotion, but its offer is a bit more limited.

Starting today, November 16, customers that switch to MetroPCS from their current wireless service provider will be able to get a free year of Amazon Prime and access all of the many benefits that it comes with. MetroPCS’s deal is only available for new customers and is only offering a Prime account for one year rather than indefinitely, but those that do take advantage of this will also get the Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime for free.

The Galaxy J7 Prime usually costs between $209 and $99 on MetroPCS, and some of its key specs include a 5.5-inch Full HD display, 8MP f/1.9 rear camera, 1.6GHz Exynos 7870 processor, 16GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM, and a 3,300 mAh battery.

In order to take advantage of this MetroPCS deal, you’ll need to first make the switch to the carrier and pick up your free J7 Prime. Once you do this and submit your information through MetroPCS’s website, you’ll get an email with a link and code to enter on Amazon’s site. Do this, and you’ll be all set up with a free year of Prime.

See at MetroPCS

What else can I do in Daydream?

Daydream is more than a one trick pony

Whilst the Daydream is great for Games and Streaming there are other apps out there for use in education and other things too. We’ve made a list of some of the best Apps that aren’t games or streaming services.

Note: This is a list of specifically Daydream Apps that make use of the controller. A lot of the apps out there, especially the education ones, only use the original Google Cardboard and thats not really the focus of this article.

Read more at VRHeads!

The best smart home and kitchen gadgets to give as gifts

For the smart home and kitchen gadget section of our holiday gift guide, we skipped past the WiFi-enabled toaster ovens and what-have-you, and narrowed our list down to the stuff that’s actually useful. For starters, yes, we agree that the Instant Pot — a darling in food and tech circles — is worth the hype. With this one gadget, you get a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, yogurt maker, cake maker, egg maker, with modes for sautéing, steaming, warming and sterilizing. The cook in your life might also enjoy the Tasty One Top, a much-buzzed-about induction cooktop, which tracks the time and temperature, and automatically adjusts as necessary.

Outside the kitchen, Philip’s Hue lighting kit now works with Alexa-, HomeKit- and Google Assistant-integrated gadgets. We also recommend the Alexa-enabled ecobee4 smart thermostat and the Amazon Echo Show for playing back both music and video. And yes, speaking of the sort, smart speakers make a good (if safe) gift. We recommend options from both Amazon and Google — their products are well matched enough that your decision will mostly come down to which ecosystem your giftee prefers.

Source: Engadget Holiday Gift Guide 2017

Airbnb buys startup to help you find disability-friendly rentals

Airbnb knows its hosts haven’t always been kind to people with disabilities, and it’s taking some definitive steps to fix that weakness. The company just bought Accomable, a startup that helps you embark on disability-friendly travel. While Accomable is winding down over the months ahead, its accommodation listings will find their way into Airbnb’s entries for over 60 countries. You’ll know if a host really does have accommodations for disabled guests throughout the home, not just wheelchair access at the entry. Also, Airbnb is pursuing its own improvements to help you make more informed choices.

It’s offering checklists that hosts can fill out to indicate their exact level of accommodation, such as whether entryways are wide enough to fit wheelchairs. In theory, it’ll be easy to ensure that you have access to the kitchen or washroom without having to ask hosts. The feature is starting to appear on the web right now, and it should reach mobile apps within a few months.

It’ll take a while before these additions are noticeable. This isn’t the end of Airbnb’s efforts, however, and the combination of the Accomable deal with the checklist feature is at least an acknowledgment that the existing strategy wasn’t working. It already had a policy barring discrimination against disabled guests, but that clearly wasn’t enough to prevent some hosts from rejecting guests who disclosed their conditions. In the near future, you might not have to take that risk — you can make a beeline for the homes that are genuinely ready to welcome you in.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Airbnb

Tesla’s massive Supercharger rest stops come online in California

While we’re all waiting for the reveal of Tesla’s electric semi this evening, the company’s new charging stations are ready for prime time. Well, two of them are at least. According to a report at Electrek, Tesla has two new stations active in California, one between LA and San Francisco in Kettleman City and the other in Baker (between LA and Las Vegas). As shown in pictures published by Electrek, the newly online travel stations look a lot like, well, a gas station without the gas.

Elektrek‘s photos also show that the rooftops of the charging stations have solar panels, though the site notes that Tesla stations will still likely need to pull power from the local grid if things get busy. In addition, there seems to be some sort of product showcase in what Electrek is calling “the lounge,” which will likely have products like solar panels and Powerwall units for customers to check out.

It’s not a big surprise that these Tesla charging stations channel existing places like truck stops, as The Verge notes, or basic gas stations that have attached convenience stores. It will be interesting to see how many consumer vs. soon-to-be-revealed semis will use the station in the near future, but this seems like a good way to break up a long trip for Tesla owners.

Via: The Verge

Source: Electrek

The iRig Keys I/O makes it easy to streamline your studio

Whether you’re demoing a song for your band or recording a masterpiece to share on Soundcloud, you’ll likely need a couple of things to connect to your computer. If you’re planning on having any real instruments or vocals, you’ll need some sort of audio interface to turn your analog sounds into digital ones. I have an M-Audio MobilePre USB for that task, which runs about $180 on Amazon. In addition, you probably want to have a MIDI controller, to “play” all those sounds you don’t have real instruments for. These can typically cost $250 – $500 or so, depending on features. At $300, IK Multimedia’s iRig Keys I/O 49 comes in at the lower end of this bracket.

As the name suggests, it’s a MIDI controller with 49 full-sized piano keys and one important addition: a built-in audio interface that records 24-bit audio at a 96kHz sampling rate. As with similar controllers, the iRig Keys I/O works with PC, Mac and iOS devices and whatever software you’re already familiar with. The keyboard powers via USB from your computer, a DC charger (not included) or four AA batteries, making it a super portable solution.

The physical layout of the iRig Keys is intuitive, with big, easy to access controller buttons, knobs, and touch-sensitive sliders above the piano keys. As with most MIDI controllers, there’s the usual complement of pitch shifters, modulation controls, velocity-sensitive pads and other programmable buttons.

I love having physical controls to control the various sounds I’m playing with on a keyboard like this, and the iRig unit has them all laid out in an intuitive way: pads on the right, knobs in the center and sliders to the left. Everything is labeled nicely, though you’ll need to know what each does if you’re playing in a dark bar or recording studio without a mini light clipped on — none of the labels light up.

The ports and the switches on the back of the iRig I/O 49 cover all the bases, too. There’s a toggle for USB power, a DC port, and then a Mini-DIN MIDI port for the included USB or Lightning cables that connect the keyboard to your device. Importantly, there’s the aforementioned headphone jack and balanced outputs for connecting to a PA or amp.

The keys are unweighted and made of plastic, so if you’re looking for a higher-end feel, you might want to go elsewhere. Still, playing the iRig Keys feels as good as any other USB controller I’ve played. The general build quality is pretty high-end, down to the soft rubber feet on the bottom to keep it from sliding around on the table. It’s hard to overstate the joy of playing with keys that are the same size as a real piano. If you’ve ever tried to hit chords with a mini-sized rig, you know just what I mean; my fat fingers need as much space as possible to hit even the most basic of chords.

Of course, any MIDI controller is only as good as the software it can access, and the iRig Keys I/O comes with some decent free apps on iOS and Mac/PC, including IK Multimedia’s own SampleTank, Ableton Live 9 Lite and Studio One Prime. Your purchase also nets you a couple of different orchestral and synth sound banks and T-Racks Deluxe mastering software (a $300 value in itself). If you don’t already have a preferred music-making app already, the included software is a good start, though getting the sounds from SampleTank for Mac was a rather tedious affair, thanks to the multi-part download.

I mostly use GarageBand on iOS and Mac, since that’s the system I’m most familiar with these days. Connecting the controller was a simple plug and play affair — I never had to worry about extra cables or dongles, or even power plugs. I just sat down, plugged the iRig Keys into my iPad and I was up and running, playing all sorts of electronic and orchestral sounds with ease.

I’ve been using MIDI controllers of various stripe for years, connecting keyboards large and small to my Macs and iOS devices. I’ve messed around with tiny keyboards that have a much smaller footprint. I’ve played with full-sized, weighted keyboards that needed a separate MIDI box to connect to my computer. I’ve recorded in decently-sized home studios with mixers and input racks and all kinds of expensive equipment, and I’ve recorded some stuff in tiny little apartments with cords strung across the living room.

These days, I connect my guitar, bass, or microphone to my Mac via a basic USB audio interface. I use a full-size Roland synth that also doubles as a controller to lay down stuff like strings, unearthly-sounding pads and things I don’t have readily available, like horns or woodwinds. It’s a ton of stuff that I have to unpack, set up on a table, and then put away when I’m done.

What excites me about the iRig I/O is that I can just have one main box on the table now, powered via USB. I can quickly plug in my guitar, bass or iPhone to the keyboard, monitor through the unit itself via headphones or a little studio monitor. When I’m finished, I simply unplug a couple of cables and lean the iRig up against the wall. The 49 keys allow me to stretch out across several octaves easily, and the smallish footprint lets me a create a fairly competent home studio right on my coffee table.

I’m looking forward to playing live with this thing, too — we already have a keyboard player with a full-sized instrument on stage, but being able to drop in some AA batteries and connect the iRig Keys I/O to my iPhone for extra sounds is a pretty great thing. Our practice studio isn’t super huge, and I already have a guitar, pedalboard and microphone in front of me.

All of that ability and potential adds up to a much more streamlined, capable rig for recording and performing. That it’s only $300 is a huge plus, as well. I paid almost as much for my current audio interface alone, and it doesn’t have a MIDI keyboard controller with programmable buttons attached. Making music quickly and in a small space is exactly what I do; having the iRig Keys I/O makes doing so much more easy and cost-effective.

Virgin Orbit books its first government launch contract

Today, space company Virgin Orbit announced that it’s secured its first launch contract from the Department of Defense. According to TechCrunch, the payload is scheduled to fly in January 2019, though it’s possible that it could launch earlier, in late 2018. The DoD will be launching payloads from the US Air Force’s Space Test Program, though what will specifically be included will be decided at a later date.

According to SpaceNews, the Defense Department was specifically interested in Vox Space because of the reusability and resiliency of the LauncherOne system. Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne is a rocket-launching plane (a modified 747) that’s currently scheduled to make its first flight sometime around July of 2018. It’s designed around launching small satellites. Virgin Orbit also recently set up a new subsidiary called Vox Space that is specifically aimed at the specific security needs around government contracts.

While there has been much attention paid to SpaceX’s contracts, it’s important to the remember that the government does share the wealth among private space companies. This is a huge boost for both Virgin Orbit and Vox Space, as it shows that the government has faith in its launch platform (and its resiliency), despite the fact that its first flight has yet to take place.

Source: TechCrunch, SpaceNews

GE’s huge 3D metal printer makes aircraft parts

GE has unveiled its previously-announced 3D metal printer, suitable for making aircraft parts. At the manufacturing trade show formnext in Germany, the GE Additive team revealed the as-yet-unnamed machine, demonstrating its ability to print parts as large as 1 meter in diameter directly from a computer file. Using additive manufacturing technology, the machine fuses together thin layers of metal powder with a 1-kilowatt laser.

The machine has the potential to build even larger parts, too, thanks to its scalable nature, plus its design can be configured to add more lasers if required. Mohammad Ehteshami, part of GE’s Project ATLAS team (Additive Technology Large Area System), said it had already been used to print a jet combustor liner. “It can also be applicable for manufacturers in the automotive, power and space industries,” he added.

The printer, which is still in beta stage, draws on additive manufacturing technology which is already being used by several GE businesses. GE Aviation is building the Advanced Turboprop, a commercial aircraft engine made largely of 3D parts. Using the technology designers reduced 855 separate parts down to just 12. According to Ehteshami, the machine is “an engineer’s dream”.

Source: GE

Judge rules NYPD needed a warrant before using cell-site simulator

A Brooklyn judge has ruled that because the New York Police Department (NYPD) used a cell-site simulator, also known by the brand name Stingray, to track down a murder suspect without a warrant, some evidence against the suspect will be thrown out. As the New York Times reports, the NYPD initially denied using such a device in this case, but later conceded that it had. Following the suspect’s arrest, he was picked out of a lineup by another victim, and that’s what is being tossed out.

“The failure to obtain a proper eavesdropping warrant here prejudiced the defendant since the most useful and needed information — ie. his location — was procured from the unlimited use of the cell site simulator,” Justice Martin Murphy wrote in his ruling.

Law enforcement agencies have been bumping up against courts quite a bit when it comes to using Stingrays. In September, a Washington DC Court of Appeals overturned a conviction of a man who had been located by police with such a device. The court ruled that the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights had been violated. Last year, a federal judge suppressed DEA evidence resulting from the use of a cell-site simulator.

Lots of different agencies across the US use cell-site simulators — the ACLU has found that at least 72 agencies in 24 states and Washington DC use them. They’re used by the FBI, ICE, the IRS as well as police officers, and the NYPD has said that it used them 1,016 times between 2008 and May 2015.

This ruling is the first to restrict the NYPD’s use of cell-site simulators, which could have an impact on how the nation’s largest police department utilizes them going forward. “This decision stands for the principle that, in the criminal justice context, the technology has to be reviewable in a fair and open way by both the courts and the defense,” Jerome Greco, a staff attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s Digital Forensics Unit, told the New York Times. Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told the publication, “Unless we create legal limits on these technologies, and real oversight, we face the prospect of comprehensive police monitoring and tracking of private, lawful activity.”

Via: New York Times

Source: NY State Law Reporting Bureau