Facebook Tests Yet Another Snapchat-Like Feature With Messenger ‘Streaks’

Facebook is continuing its seemingly relentless trend of copying Snapchat with the testing of a new feature that plays on the latter’s streak feature, which encourages users to “keep your streak going” when messaging friends.

Facebook Messenger streaks include an emoji status to indicate friends that a user is currently in a streak with – who they’ve messaged for at least two days in a row – and encourages them to keep chatting to keep the streak alive.

Messenger is testing out streak counts… Streak counts really bug me. pic.twitter.com/leDRemkSR3

— case (@CaseSandberg) November 22, 2017

A spokesperson for Facebook Messenger who spoke to Mashable confirmed its testing of the feature, saying it was a way “to see at a glance fun facts about the people you message with”.

“For example, a lightning bolt may appear next to the name of a person you’ve messaged with for at least three days in a row, and a counter will indicate how many consecutive days you’ve been chatting. We’re interested to see if people enjoy this insight, but we don’t have any additional information to share at this time.”

Streaks have been a popular feature with younger Snapchat users for some time, with many seeing them as a fun, addictive challenge to see how long they can make a streak last for. Whether or not the trend catches on with the wider age demographic of Messenger users is a different proposition, and will undoubtedly dictate the chances of a wider rollout.

In its last straight-up feature clone, Facebook created a facsimile of Snapchat’s day-long, vanishing post idea in Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, which gained 100 million users following the Snapchat-like update last year.

Tags: Facebook Messenger, Snapchat
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Do AirPods kill intimacy? No way, says Apple’s holiday ad

Have you ever been strolling along the street listening to your favorite tune when a spotlight suddenly picks you out and you find yourself pulling extraordinary dance moves all the way home? Thought not.

It does, however, happen to the star of Apple’s new ad for its wireless AirPods.

It’s a snowy night in the city, and the protagonist whips out her iPhone X to select Sam Smith’s gentle Palace track. With her AirPods firmly lodged in her ears, the song compels her to dance majestically through the city, with passers-by apparently doing their best to avoid eye contact with the odd woman prancing along the snow-covered sidewalk.

But then, inevitably, she bumps into someone. It’s a guy, and instead of yelling at her to “get the hell outta my way,” he looks at her in a way that suggests they’re going to spend the rest of the ad together. And quite possibly their lives.

With gazes firmly locked, she stuffs one of her AirPods into his ear, prompting Smith’s track to crank up again. Off the pair go, dancing through the night together. With one AirPod each.

And perhaps that’s the point of the ad. When the AirPods launched in 2016, there was much talk about how Apple’s wireless earbuds destroyed that unique intimacy that comes from getting tangled up with someone special, as might happen when sharing wired buds. The physical link isn’t there with the wireless buds, nor that potential for closeness or frisson of uncertainty, though Apple clearly begs to differ. Or perhaps the ad is telling us that no matter your movements, the wireless AirPods will not slip out of your ears and disappear down a drain.

Despite the dangerously distracted dancing, the happy couple manages to avoid stumbling into a canal or getting mown down by a bus, allowing them to perform the kind of dance moves that would hospitalize most of us within seconds of trying them.

As Apple’s ad comes to a close, the couple quits rocking out and instead gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes, AirPods still wedged firmly in ear holes. But then the spotlight goes off, daylight returns, and his AirPod is gone, confirming that it may be wise to think twice about sticking one of your earbuds into a stranger’s ear.

The Platonic ideal of a smartphone [#acpodcast]

This week, Daniel Bader, Andrew Martonik, and Russell Holly dig in with the OnePlus 5T and try to figure out why it seems like almost all smartphones are starting to look alike. They also talk about the importance of buying a phone for what it can do now — not what it might be capable of later.

Google is in the news once again with another trust and reputation-violating faux pas. This time, it’s been secretly collecting users’ cell tower locations.

Finally, friends don’t let friends buy a cheap, crappy Android tablet this Holiday season. What are the best options, if any? Check out this week’s show!

Show Notes and Links:

• OnePlus 5T review

• From the Editor’s Desk: How far can OnePlus go with community-driven software and hardware?

• OnePlus 5T: Should you pay extra for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage?

• OnePlus 5T is the company’s fastest-selling phone

• Google has been secretly collecting Android users’ cell tower locations, risking a hit to its reputation

• Please don’t buy a crappy cheap tablet on Black Friday

Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral362.mp3

Black Friday Stream: All of the best deals in real-time

Black Friday 2017 is finally here, and the Thrifter team will be covering all of it with you right here!

That’s right. Team Thrifter will be bringing you complete coverage of all things Black Friday right here, and we hope you’ll join us. Our live coverage of the fun will begin on November 22 at 10 p.m. EST. There will be deals from just about every retailer you can think of, and some will definitely be better than others. Black Friday deals have been known to sell out in just minutes (sometimes less), so this is the quickest way to be alerted to these deals as they are happening!

Join the Thrifter Deals Stream

All Our Black Friday Picks 2017

We know not everyone can browse tons of deal feeds to find the best deal, so we’ve simplified it for you. This list will constantly be updating, so be sure to check back frequently.

• Smart Home
• Amazon Devices
• iPhone, iPad, MacBook
• Google & Android
• 4K HDTVs
• PlayStation
• Xbox
• Nintendo
• Toys
• Lego
• Fashion & Beauty
• Everyday Essentials
• Amazon Deals
• Best Buy Deals
• Walmart Deals

Smart Home

HDTVs

Toys

PlayStation

Google & Android

Amazon Devices

Amazon Deals

Best Buy Deals

Walmart Deals

Apple

Xbox

Nintendo

Everyday Essentials

Fashion & Beauty

LEGO

Our nights keep getting brighter

Our nights are getting brighter and they have been every year since 2012, according to a new study published today in Science Advances. Researchers led by Christopher Kyba at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences used satellite imagery to track changes in nighttime outdoor artificial lighting around the world and they found that between 2012 and 2016, the amount of lit area grew by 2.2 percent per year. The amount of brightness from continuously lit areas also increased by 2.2 percent per year. So not only is more area being illuminated at night, already lit areas are getting even brighter. “We’re losing more and more of the night on a planetary scale,” said the journal’s editor, Kip Hodges.

Some areas stayed largely the same year over year, but many of those regions, including those in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the US, were already among the brightest to begin with. Lighting increased throughout South America, Africa and Asia. And the numbers are likely to underestimate the problem because the satellite used doesn’t pick up blue light emitted by LEDs, which have been used more and more in the last few years.

“The numbers are truly shocking, given that we know illuminating the nocturnal environment can have widespread ramifications for the environment and human health,” University of Exeter researcher Thomas Davies, who wasn’t involved with the study, told Gizmodo. And exactly how much it will impact human and environmental health is unclear since nighttime illumination is a fairly new phenomenon. “Artificial light at night is a very new stressor,” said Franz Holker, one of the researchers on the project. “The problem is that light has been introduced in places, times and intensities at which it does not naturally occur and [for] many organisms, there is no chance to adapt to this new stressor.”

And unless we change how we’re lighting our outdoor spaces, this trend will likely continue. “In the near term, it appears that artificial light emission into the environment will continue to increase, further eroding Earth’s remaining land area that experiences natural day-night light cycles,” said the study.

Image: Carla Schaffer / AAAS

Via: Washington Post

Source: Science Advances

’League of Legends’ pro suspended 20 months for domestic violence

Back in October, League of Legends player Li “Vasilii” Wei Jun livestreamed alleged domestic abuse against his then-girlfriend. The Chinese team Newbee immediately terminated his contract and the League Championship Series launched an investigation. Today, the organization suspended Vasilii from professional games for 20 months, which begins in January 2018 at the start of the next competitive season. Riot took the opportunity to modify its rules and allow for harsher punishment for potential future cases of domestic abuse.

This is double what Riot established as the maximum sentence for ‘Ongoing Misconduct’ in its Global Penalty Index. In its ruling, the studio stated Vasilii’s ‘particularly egregious’ behavior justified extending the punishment: “Whereas making these threats toward another another professional player on stage might warrant a 10 month suspension, physical intimidation and threats of domestic abuse should be punished much more harshly. Additionally, Vasilii has been punished for violent tendencies before – in an incident last year he showed physical aggression onstage, smashing a keyboard and physically intimidating a camera operator during a match.”

This pushed Riot to tweak its rules so that serious domestic abuse incidents would earn harsher punishment. Per its words: “The current limitation of 10 months would not be appropriate for cases such as actual domestic abuse, which would warrant an Indefinite Suspension.”

Riot didn’t deem Vasilii’s actions deserved the new maximum sentence. Earlier in its ruling, the judgment pointed out that “Although the investigation results don’t show proof that Vasilii physically assaulted his girlfriend, he made credible threats of physical violence and death threats toward a defenseless person in a private home that were intimidating enough for her to call the police.” While the company asserted its ongoing right to modify punishments based on ‘aggravating circumstances’ particular to each incident, it’s unclear what line must be crossed for an indefinite suspension.

Via: Kotaku

Source: LoL Pro League

Follow-up to the compact iPhone SE is reportedly set for a 2018 launch

The iPhone X and iPhone 8 may well be some of the best handsets on the market, but they’re also pretty pricey. You may not remember this though — Apple also offers a smaller, lower-cost device, called the iPhone SE.

The SE has gone a few years now without an update, but fresh reports indicate that Apple is finally working on an update to the device. Tentatively called the iPhone SE 2, the device is rumored to keep the 4-inch design on the original SE, but will get an upgrade to the latest Apple processor, and possible get a few camera upgrades.

The report comes from China Economic Daily, which notes that the new iPhone SE will cost around $450 — the same price of the original SE when it launched. Since then, it has been discounted to $350.

So when will we finally see the iPhone SE 2? The report notes that it could show up before July, which would make sense — the original iPhone SE launched in March 2016, so it’s very possible that Apple wants to stick with that release schedule. The report also mentions that the phone will be assembled by Taiwanese manufacturer Wistron at a factory in India.

The report follows pretty closely with previous rumors. Another recent report, this one from Focus Taiwan, noted that the iPhone SE 2 would launch in the first quarter of 2018 — which would be from January to March.

Other reports have been a bit more specific when it comes to specs. Tekz24 reports that the phone will come with Apple’s A10 Fusion chip, 2GB of RAM, and options for either 32GB or 128GB of storage. The rear-facing camera will reportedly come in at 12-megapixels, while the front-facing camera will sit in at 5-megapixels. Of course, that report should be taken with a grain of salt — we haven’t heard of Tekz24 before, so we’ll have to wait and hear other rumors about the phone’s specs, or possibly wait until the phone actually launches to get official specs.

While the current iteration of the iPhone SE hasn’t really gotten a true upgrade since launch, it did get a storage bump to 64GB or 128GB — up from 32GB or 64GB — in March.

Editors’ Recommendations

• iPhone 8 Plus vs. iPhone 7 Plus: Should you upgrade?
• Google Pixel 2 XL vs. Apple iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 8 vs. iPhone 7: Time for an upgrade?
• Google Pixel 2 vs iPhone 8: The next generation of smartphone combat
• LG V30 vs. iPhone 7 Plus: Can LG’s new flagship take out Apple’s champion?

Weekly Rewind: Cyber Monday deals, Uber’s massive hack, Amazon Key’s competitor

A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top tech stories, from Cyber Monday deals to the history of killer robots — it’s all here.

The best Cyber Monday tech deals

Black Friday sales are everywhere. Whether you’re listening to the radio, watching television, or just casually walking down the street, you can expect to be bombarded with advertisements for the annual event. Which is why it can be so easy to forget the online phenomenon that follows: Cyber Monday.

The deals don’t have to end with the passing of the weekend, and neither does your excitement for them. Cyber Monday is filled with great savings and sales, sans the lines and negative social implications that come with Black Friday. If you’re looking to do your shopping online this year, make sure to check back here for the latest offers. We will be scouring the depths of the web to bring you the best Cyber Monday deals as they go live.

Read: The best Cyber Monday tech deals

Palaces in the sky: The world’s most expensive helicopters

There comes a point in every millionaire’s life when they need a change of perspective. After building your own island fortress and breeding a frenzy of mutant sharks, it becomes difficult to view the world the same way most people do. Even driving in a supercar may leave you feeling blasé. The average person sees the world from ground level, but wouldn’t it be grand to get the view from Mount Olympus?

Thankfully, through the power of engineering, you can cast side earthly tethers and survey the world from on high. All you need is enough money to buy your own private helicopter. Check out the list below for a closer look at some of the most expensive helicopters available for private use. If you need to save up for a few more years before buying one, might we recommend a drone instead?

Read: Palaces in the sky: The world’s most expensive helicopters

Move over, Amazon Key — BoxLock Home protects the packages left at your door

Are you worried about “porch pirates” stealing packages that get left outside your door? BoxLock Home could come in handy. It’s the first internet-connected smart security padlock that caters specifically to residential customers looking to protect their packages. While Amazon Key allows delivery drivers access to a user’s front door, BoxLock offers a more nonintrusive solution.

BoxLock Home only opens when an “out for delivery” package is scanned. Setup is quick, with users simply downloading the mobile app and locking the BoxLock around the preferred delivery receptacle (anything that comes with a hasp for use of a padlock). The box can only be opened when a delivery shows up. The delivery driver will scan the package and follow a two-step verification process to unlock the box and leave the package inside. Once all this happens, the user gets an automatic notification that the package is waiting for them safely in the box.

Read: Move over, Amazon Key — BoxLock Home protects the packages left at your door

Inside the hack Uber didn’t want 57 million users to know about

Another day, another massive data breach. This time around, Uber was the target, but unlike other hacks, it took the company more than a year to disclose the hack to its customers.

According to a blog post from Uber, hackers managed to steal the personal data of a whopping 57 million Uber users in a data breach. Among those compromised, according to a Bloomberg report, were 7 million drivers, of which around 600,000 had their drivers license numbers stolen. Uber says that the information did not include things like Social Security numbers or credit cards.

Read: Inside the hack Uber didn’t want 57 million users to know about

Google finally breaks ground on its impressive ‘landscraper’ campus in London

Heatherwick Studio

For years, the plans for Google’s London campus were just that: plans. The ambitious project stayed stuck on the drawing board, with the web giant abandoning parts of the original plan and then swapping architecture firms as it dithered over the final look.

Having finally settled on a striking design that’s become known as the “landscraper” — for being much longer than it is tall — the company’s CFO Ruth Porat and its U.K. managing director Ronan Harris on Tuesday broke ground at the site in the city’s vibrant King’s Cross district.

Read: Google finally breaks ground on its impressive ‘landscraper’ campus in London

How did we get here? 9 major milestones in the history of killer robots

The idea of robotic warfare has been a sci-fi staple for ages. Decades before Terminator invoked a hellish world pitting man against machine, the 1920s play which introduced us to the word “robot” predicted the end of humanity at the metallic hands of murderous bots.

Lately, however, the topic has became a much bigger issue as science fiction has become science reality. The likes of Elon Musk of Tesla and Mustafa Suleyman of Google have written to the United Nations urging a ban on the development and use of autonomous “killer robots” such as drones, tanks, and machine guns.

But while the pace of this “third revolution in warfare” is speeding up, interest in similar weapons dates back years. Here are nine important milestones that set us on the path to where we are here in 2017.

Read: How did we get here? 9 major milestones in the history of killer robots

Alternate-dimension adventure ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ gets a trippy new trailer

Walt Disney Pictures released a new trailer for A Wrinkle in Time, and if the film does indeed live up to the promise of the latest preview, the live-action adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel is going to be one truly trippy, reality-bending cinematic spectacle.

Directed by Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay (Selma) from a script penned by Jennifer Lee (Frozen), A Wrinkle in Time follows a young girl who’s recruited by a trio of eccentric interdimensional travelers to rescue her father, an astrophysicist trapped on a far-off planet. She’s joined on her adventure by her genius younger brother and her high-school classmate, and the three set off on a fantastic quest that spans planets and alternate dimensions and tests with the foundations of reality as we know it.

Read: Alternate-dimension adventure ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ gets a trippy new trailer

 Walmart looks to keep store floors squeaky-clean by using self-driving robots

Bossanova Robotics

Cleaning the floors at Walmart isn’t exactly an enviable job, and now it’s becoming one that humans no longer have to do. The world’s largest retailer is applying some high-tech to a generally low-paying task. Walmart now has self-driving machines of its own, but you won’t see any of them on highways. Rather, these bristle-wielding devices, designed by Brain Corp. are autonomously rolling themselves around Walmart stores, cleaning up after customers and employees.

The autonomous floor cleaner is currently being tested in five stores in the vicinity of company headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. With its sensors, cameras, and even Lidar, the floor scrubber features all the bells and whistles of a self-driving car, though for different purposes. The machine exists somewhere between a Roomba and a Tesla. And while a human is needed to first show the scrubber the ropes (guiding it on its path, alerting it as to when the store is busiest and emptiest), the autonomous vacuum otherwise works on its own.

Read: Walmart looks to keep store floors squeaky-clean by using self-driving robots

Facebook applies new authenticity tools and expose Russian-controlled pages

What do you get when you mash up a pedal-free exercise bike, a rowing machine, and a balance board? Quite possibly something like the RipRow, the mountain biking training tool you never knew you wanted, but now may find yourself desperately keen to get hold of.

Now that we’re firmly out of summer and veering rapidly in the direction of winter, the thought of using your cold and wet weekends to go mountain biking suddenly becomes a lot whole lot less appealing for most of us. It’s also important to hold onto your core strength, coordination, balance, and sense of confidence on a bike during the off-season months. This is where the rugged-sounding RipRow comes into play. While stationary gym bikes have been around for a long time, a machine that’s built specifically with mountain biking in mind has been in much shorter supply. Until now, at least.

Read: Facebook applies new authenticity tools and expose Russian-controlled pages

Weekly Rewind: Cyber Monday deals, Uber’s massive hack, Amazon Key’s competitor

A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top tech stories, from Cyber Monday deals to the history of killer robots — it’s all here.

The best Cyber Monday tech deals

Black Friday sales are everywhere. Whether you’re listening to the radio, watching television, or just casually walking down the street, you can expect to be bombarded with advertisements for the annual event. Which is why it can be so easy to forget the online phenomenon that follows: Cyber Monday.

The deals don’t have to end with the passing of the weekend, and neither does your excitement for them. Cyber Monday is filled with great savings and sales, sans the lines and negative social implications that come with Black Friday. If you’re looking to do your shopping online this year, make sure to check back here for the latest offers. We will be scouring the depths of the web to bring you the best Cyber Monday deals as they go live.

Read: The best Cyber Monday tech deals

Palaces in the sky: The world’s most expensive helicopters

There comes a point in every millionaire’s life when they need a change of perspective. After building your own island fortress and breeding a frenzy of mutant sharks, it becomes difficult to view the world the same way most people do. Even driving in a supercar may leave you feeling blasé. The average person sees the world from ground level, but wouldn’t it be grand to get the view from Mount Olympus?

Thankfully, through the power of engineering, you can cast side earthly tethers and survey the world from on high. All you need is enough money to buy your own private helicopter. Check out the list below for a closer look at some of the most expensive helicopters available for private use. If you need to save up for a few more years before buying one, might we recommend a drone instead?

Read: Palaces in the sky: The world’s most expensive helicopters

Move over, Amazon Key — BoxLock Home protects the packages left at your door

Are you worried about “porch pirates” stealing packages that get left outside your door? BoxLock Home could come in handy. It’s the first internet-connected smart security padlock that caters specifically to residential customers looking to protect their packages. While Amazon Key allows delivery drivers access to a user’s front door, BoxLock offers a more nonintrusive solution.

BoxLock Home only opens when an “out for delivery” package is scanned. Setup is quick, with users simply downloading the mobile app and locking the BoxLock around the preferred delivery receptacle (anything that comes with a hasp for use of a padlock). The box can only be opened when a delivery shows up. The delivery driver will scan the package and follow a two-step verification process to unlock the box and leave the package inside. Once all this happens, the user gets an automatic notification that the package is waiting for them safely in the box.

Read: Move over, Amazon Key — BoxLock Home protects the packages left at your door

Inside the hack Uber didn’t want 57 million users to know about

Another day, another massive data breach. This time around, Uber was the target, but unlike other hacks, it took the company more than a year to disclose the hack to its customers.

According to a blog post from Uber, hackers managed to steal the personal data of a whopping 57 million Uber users in a data breach. Among those compromised, according to a Bloomberg report, were 7 million drivers, of which around 600,000 had their drivers license numbers stolen. Uber says that the information did not include things like Social Security numbers or credit cards.

Read: Inside the hack Uber didn’t want 57 million users to know about

Google finally breaks ground on its impressive ‘landscraper’ campus in London

Heatherwick Studio

For years, the plans for Google’s London campus were just that: plans. The ambitious project stayed stuck on the drawing board, with the web giant abandoning parts of the original plan and then swapping architecture firms as it dithered over the final look.

Having finally settled on a striking design that’s become known as the “landscraper” — for being much longer than it is tall — the company’s CFO Ruth Porat and its U.K. managing director Ronan Harris on Tuesday broke ground at the site in the city’s vibrant King’s Cross district.

Read: Google finally breaks ground on its impressive ‘landscraper’ campus in London

How did we get here? 9 major milestones in the history of killer robots

The idea of robotic warfare has been a sci-fi staple for ages. Decades before Terminator invoked a hellish world pitting man against machine, the 1920s play which introduced us to the word “robot” predicted the end of humanity at the metallic hands of murderous bots.

Lately, however, the topic has became a much bigger issue as science fiction has become science reality. The likes of Elon Musk of Tesla and Mustafa Suleyman of Google have written to the United Nations urging a ban on the development and use of autonomous “killer robots” such as drones, tanks, and machine guns.

But while the pace of this “third revolution in warfare” is speeding up, interest in similar weapons dates back years. Here are nine important milestones that set us on the path to where we are here in 2017.

Read: How did we get here? 9 major milestones in the history of killer robots

Alternate-dimension adventure ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ gets a trippy new trailer

Walt Disney Pictures released a new trailer for A Wrinkle in Time, and if the film does indeed live up to the promise of the latest preview, the live-action adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel is going to be one truly trippy, reality-bending cinematic spectacle.

Directed by Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay (Selma) from a script penned by Jennifer Lee (Frozen), A Wrinkle in Time follows a young girl who’s recruited by a trio of eccentric interdimensional travelers to rescue her father, an astrophysicist trapped on a far-off planet. She’s joined on her adventure by her genius younger brother and her high-school classmate, and the three set off on a fantastic quest that spans planets and alternate dimensions and tests with the foundations of reality as we know it.

Read: Alternate-dimension adventure ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ gets a trippy new trailer

 Walmart looks to keep store floors squeaky-clean by using self-driving robots

Bossanova Robotics

Cleaning the floors at Walmart isn’t exactly an enviable job, and now it’s becoming one that humans no longer have to do. The world’s largest retailer is applying some high-tech to a generally low-paying task. Walmart now has self-driving machines of its own, but you won’t see any of them on highways. Rather, these bristle-wielding devices, designed by Brain Corp. are autonomously rolling themselves around Walmart stores, cleaning up after customers and employees.

The autonomous floor cleaner is currently being tested in five stores in the vicinity of company headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. With its sensors, cameras, and even Lidar, the floor scrubber features all the bells and whistles of a self-driving car, though for different purposes. The machine exists somewhere between a Roomba and a Tesla. And while a human is needed to first show the scrubber the ropes (guiding it on its path, alerting it as to when the store is busiest and emptiest), the autonomous vacuum otherwise works on its own.

Read: Walmart looks to keep store floors squeaky-clean by using self-driving robots

Facebook applies new authenticity tools and expose Russian-controlled pages

What do you get when you mash up a pedal-free exercise bike, a rowing machine, and a balance board? Quite possibly something like the RipRow, the mountain biking training tool you never knew you wanted, but now may find yourself desperately keen to get hold of.

Now that we’re firmly out of summer and veering rapidly in the direction of winter, the thought of using your cold and wet weekends to go mountain biking suddenly becomes a lot whole lot less appealing for most of us. It’s also important to hold onto your core strength, coordination, balance, and sense of confidence on a bike during the off-season months. This is where the rugged-sounding RipRow comes into play. While stationary gym bikes have been around for a long time, a machine that’s built specifically with mountain biking in mind has been in much shorter supply. Until now, at least.

Read: Facebook applies new authenticity tools and expose Russian-controlled pages