Sennheiser IE 80 S In-Ear Headphones Review

It’s been a while since we’ve seen movement from Sennheiser’s higher end earphones. That is, the company’s IE line of in-ears, where the mid-range has been owned by the IE 80 and the flagship of the series being the IE 800 (which we looked at) for the past few years. Well, Sennheiser is now getting around to updating its shining stars. And judging by the nomenclature, we very well are looking at refinement rather than reimagining.

Taking a page from Apple’s naming method, Sennheiser tacks on an “S” to the model name. Here, we’re taking a look at the new contender for mid-range in-ear king, the IE 80 S.

Much of what made the original IE 80 great is still here, like the detachable cable and analog bass adjustment, but the design/ergonomics and acoustics have been reworked for the better. Let’s take a look at what to expect.

Design

Since this is a refinement, the overall form of the IE 80 S reflects that of the original. They still have that interesting trapezoidal shape and are meant to be worn around the ear. One immediate difference in the design is the reduction of the brushed metal plate on the flat, outward surface of the earpieces.

We don’t think everyone will be a fan of this move, as the metal looks more premium than the predominate material of the earpiece chassis, which feels like your standard-fare hard plastic (but with a stealthy, smooth matte finish). But we can understand what Sennheiser was going for. This is a more streamlined look and it draws the eyes to the Sennheiser logo and that intriguing bass control dial.

Durability is something else Sennheiser says was a focus with the IE 80 S, and we believe it. The earpiece housing, connector neck, and cable construction all feel like they can hold up to a beating.

Speaking of the cable, it’s also looks like it’s made of a pretty standard-fare black sheathing. It feels better in-hand, by sporting a smooth, rubbery finish. It has a thickness that backs its durable up-bringing, which serves good for resisting tangles but not for being the most compact when rolled up for travel.

Usability

We’re glad that the IE 80 S comes with a similarly awesome selection of accessories like its predecessor. First and foremost are the wide variety of ear tips, which now include different sizes of Comply foam tips. The in-canal seal is extremely important with in-ear headphones, and anyone should be able to find something that works out of these nine different pairs.

That said, I didn’t have a very positive experience with either types of the silicone tips. I don’t know if it’s because the stubby shape of the tips, or their firmness, but I had a hard time getting an appropriate seal. It’s hard for a reviewer to comment about this aspect of an in-ear, because all ear canals are different. But for what it’s worth, I try a lot of earphones and these gave me more fit trouble than usual. I eventually found that jamming them in tightly got me the seal I wanted. Anyways, I’m glad that Sennheiser threw in foam tips as an option. Things were all good using those. And you may want to opt for foam anyways, because isolation isn’t this earphone’s strong suit.

Fortunately, our fit issues didn’t bode badly for comfort. The earpieces are lighter than they look, and their unique trapezoidal shape actually fit nicely in the ear. We actually barely feel them when donned, and that’s what you want. The around-the-ear wear makes for a secure fit, which works together with the thick rubbery sheathing to stop microphonics at its tracks. These are earphones you can workout with; they stay in place despite movement.

We love that Sennheiser retained cable swappability, but hate that it’s with a proprietary 2-pin connector – which means third-party cables are a no-go.

We must mention a slight difference with the design of this around-the-ear earphone compared to others. The stem interface where the cable connects to the earpiece is long and sticks up vertically when you wear the earphones. This is partly what makes the IE 80 S so comfortable, but we did find that it caused the cable to fall from our ears at times (when turning our head). You’ll want to utilize the chin slider to keep the cables tightly against you, or use the optional ear hooks that are included.

The cable has a generous length short of 4 ft (3.93′ to be exact). Sennheiser made a tweak to the Y-splitter, smoothing out the original blocky form. For some reason, it has also changed the orientation of the 3.5mm jack. It used to be right-angled and now is straight. We feel like this is an unnecessary change and also inconsistent, because the update to the IE 800, the IE 800 S, continues to use a right-angle connector. Please choose one method and stick to it.

The bass tuning dial on each earpiece requires a small flathead tool, which Sennheiser places on the opposite end of the ear wax cleaning tool – so you’ll want to make sure you have this around if you often change the bass. There’s five little markers with a quarter circle section in which to increase the bass.

We really wish that Sennheiser at the very least marked the lower and upper limits of the bass dial. There’s no visual reference, so you have to remember what you last set it on. If you forget, you’ll have to listen, change it, and listen again to figure it out. You of course can try to remember what’s what relative to the earpiece orientation, but we still stand by that a simple marker would have been best.

Sound

Sennheiser set themselves up for scrutiny when it comes to the sound of the IE 80 S, because it’s one of the big updates and a big reason why you’ll be paying the original premium of this headphone. Suffice to say, the IE 80 S doesn’t disappoint.

One of the things that continues to stands out in Sennheiser’s audio reproduction is clarity. We’ve seen it in our listen of the wallet-busting IE 800, and we can tell a similar prowess in the IE 80 S. Throughout the spectrum, notes cleanly hit with appreciable separation. There’s plenty here to enjoy from an analytical standpoint, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t the kind of energy that gets our feet thumping.

Many headphone makers opt for a V-shaped frequency response to get this kind of impact. Sennheiser aims for a good balance between impact and accuracy with a U-shaped response, which lifts bass and treble but keeps the mid-range appreciable. I’m usually a stickler about ample mid-range presence, but didn’t find the IE 80 S really lacking in this area. What helps is the natural and airy vocals.

Out of the box, we didn’t feel that the bass needed any boosting. It’s the strongest aspect of the sound by default. But it is nice that Sennheiser includes an analog boost for bassheads; this is an option rarely found on earphones. We really enjoyed the bass on the IE 80 S. It’s authoritative, which coupled with its ability to be tuned should make this the best choice for basshead audiophiles. The qualities of both the bass and treble are about the same level for us; they’re where they should be at this price range but could be better. The mid-bass has a looseness to our ears, and the sub-bass isn’t as deep as what you’d find on the IE 800, nor is the treble is extended/sparkly as it either.

But what helps the entire presentation (and pleasure) is the airy soundstage. The IE 80 S follows in the steps of its more expensive counterpart in this respect. So this means that it’s a more 3D space than it is wide, and the dynamics of different notes in the space are superb.

Final Thoughts

We reckon that the two biggest questions that the IE 80 S will raise are if they’re a worthy upgrade and if they’re worth their hefty $350 price. We’re more inclined to say Yes to the second question than the first, but it will come down to what the listener values. The IE 80 S in no way wipes the floor with the original IE 80, and the recommendation becomes difficult when the still-capable original costs $150 less than the new guy.

But if sound quality means a lot to you (which, if you’re thinking about dropping a few hundred, then it probably does), than the IE 80 S may be worth it. Sennheiser has carried over some of its higher level expertise to its mid-range champ and it can make a valuable difference. It also helps how the device is refined as much out as it is in.

Sennheiser IE 80 S

Twitter bans extremist account retweeted by Trump

Twitter’s enforcement of its new anti-hate rules is having a very immediate and tangible effect. Daily Dot has noticed that Twitter banned the account of Jayda Fransen, the British extremist whose bogus anti-Muslim videos were retweeted by Donald Trump in November. The social network also banned the account for his group as well as those of numerous other racist organizations, such as American Renaissance and its editor Jared Taylor.

The company declined to identify the exact accounts that would be removed by its newly enacted policy, but it did acknowledge that it would “review” accounts and ban groups that identify as extremist through their goals and engage in or promote violence against civilians. This is the result of its enforcement, in other words.

As Gizmodo noted, these extremists are easy targets: they wear their hatred on their sleeve and have few sympathizers outside of their immediate circles. The real test is whether or not Twitter goes after extremists who have relatively wide followings and try to mask their hate with softer language, such as white supremacist Richard Spencer. However, the crackdown suggests that Twitter’s enforcement promise isn’t just lip service. In theory, it’ll spend more time taking action and less time trying to justify inaction.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Daily Dot

Seagate speeds up data access on its hard drives, but they won’t match SSDs

Despite the falling prices of flash-based solid-state drives and their rising presence in desktops and laptops, hard drives aren’t completely out of the picture. They offer extremely large capacities at an affordable price, but their read and write speeds fall extremely short. Seagate plans to address this issue with multi-actuator technology.

On their simplest level, hard drives are similar to old-school record players, only they can write to the medium as well. Hard drives contain several magnetic, spinning “records” that hold your data, and are accessed by arms with needle-style readers on their ends. These arms typically move across the platters simultaneously, but Seagate’s multi-actuator technology now divides them all into two separate groups.

“With two actuators operating on a single pivot point, each actuator will control half of the drive’s arms. Half the drive’s recording heads will operate together as a unit, while the other half will operate independently as a separate unit,” Seagate said. “This enables a hard drive to double its performance while maintaining the same capacity as that of a single actuator drive.”

In an illustration, Seagate shows eight spinning platters complemented by eight arms, each with their own read and write heads (needles). All eight share the same pivot point, but the top four are moving separately than the bottom four. Data is read and written at a faster rate because Seagate’s new design doesn’t perform these operations in a single wave, but rather in two using a leapfrog-type fashion.

Seagate’s multi-actuator technology focuses on the hyperscale data center where hard drives are still the major source of storage due to their low cost and extremely high capacities. But they’re not exactly fast when compared to solid-state drives using the same storage device connector. How this new technology will improve access times versus using the standard data center-focused hard drive still remains to be seen.

Unfortunately, the old-school SATA 3 connector used by bulky hard drives and 2.5-inch solid-state drives will always bottleneck performance. It’s capable of moving data at up to 600MB per second, which you will never experience although 2.5-inch solid state drives can come close. Hard drives with platters that spin up to 7,200 rotations per minute (RPM) can reach up to 160MB per second, and those that spin at 5,400RPM are even slower.

In theory, Seagate’s new technology should double the maximum data movement speed of hard drives. But the new design likely isn’t just locked to splitting the arms into two separate groups: The company likely needed a new controller that can split data into two groups of platters while keeping all that data “together.” In other words, instead of saving your photo to the hard drive in one long stroke, its painted onto the platters in two small, faster strokes.

Seagate also said it developed a new heat-assisted magnetic recording technology (HAMR) to pack even more storage. This tech will appear in its Exos hard drives in pilot volumes during 2018 followed by a full release in 2019.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Are enterprise hard drives more reliable than mainstream models? Report says no
• In the battle of SSD vs. HDD storage, the winner is clear
• This microwave-based hard drive will offer 40 terabytes of storage
• Seagate could release the first 20TB hard drive by 2019
• Can democracy be digitized? These vets at Polco say yes

Obama’s cybersecurity commissioner offers advice on how to keep safe when shopping online

Shopping is a big part of the holidays, whether you’re heading to the grocery store for a festive feast, or trawling Amazon for last minute gifts. Online criminals are aware that people might let their guard down, given the many other stresses of the season, so they’re on alert for potential targets.

It’s not impossible to get through the end of the year without becoming a victim, but your chances of doing so are much improved if you take the proper precautions. Digital Trends caught up with former cybersecurity commissioner to President Obama, Eric Cole, to get some insight on the best ways to stay safe and secure.

Digital Trends: What sort of things can consumers do to stay safe while shopping online?

Eric Cole: First and foremost, use common sense. I know people are always wanting these crazy, high-tech pieces of advice from me, but they’re not practical. What I always say is that cybersecurity is not about doing crazy, complex things. It’s doing simple things in a consistent manner. If we just used basic common sense online, we would be much safer.

Cybersecurity is not about doing crazy, complex things. It’s doing simple things in a consistent manner.

For example, one of the big hacks we’ve seen this year is that adversaries will buy ads on search engines like Google. Now, you’re looking for that perfect gift, you go to Google and put in the search term, and the second, third item that appears up in that search shows the items for 80 percent off.

You can’t believe your eyes, right? This item is hard to get, nobody’s discounting it, and here it is for 80 percent off. You just can’t help yourself. You click on the link, and in those three seconds where you’ve clicked on the link, boom – your computer is compromised, your identity is stolen, your credit card information is gone. It’s that easy. One click is all it takes, so you want to be very careful about where you’re going.

Stick to those mainstream sites, and remember. deals that seem too good to be true are too good to be true. I’ve heard very, very, very few cases where seeing these crazy discount sites pays off for consumers. Be smart, look at the big sites, and be careful about giving out your personal information.

Is there a greater threat of being subjected to an attack at this time of year?

Yes, and there are three reasons. One, the adversaries are more active. Remember, adversaries don’t typically target an individual, they target a number. They don’t care if you’re Bill Gates or Bubba Gates, what they want is 10,000 credit cards. They want 10,000 identities . During the holiday season, because there are so many more people online, there’s a lot more people they can compromise.

Former C.I.A. Technology Director, Dr. Eric Cole (credit: Security Haven)

Second, people have such large amounts of transactions during the holiday that they don’t really check their credit card statements as closely as they should. At the end of the year, for Christmas, they might get two, three, or four pages. They’ll glance through it, but for most people, when they think fraudulent credit card activity, they’re looking for $20,000 purchases. That’s not reality. Most adversaries will do a $2 or $3 purchase here and there. So, if you just scan your credit card statement quickly, you will miss those fraudulent charges.

The trick with that is, contact your credit card company to do real-time alerting. I use this feature, and it’s awesome. Now, whenever my credit card is used for any purchase in a restaurant or in a store, I get an alert, and then I approve that this is authorized or unauthorized. A lot of people go, “oh, but Eric, that’s going to take two to three more seconds every time I approve a purchase.” Yes, but I will tell you that the probability of having credit card fraud is high, and that will probably cost you 300 to 400 hours. Do you want to take two seconds now, or 400 hours later, when your credit card gets compromised?

Does the Equifax breach demonstrate that we need to be less trusting of how others use our data, as well as keeping an eye on our own activity?

Some people get upset with me when I say this, but security is your responsibility.

Yes! This is one that I’ve been pushing for a while, and some people get upset with me when I say this, but security is your responsibility. It’s terrible that our information was in Equifax, it’s terrible that it happened, but that is ultimately your responsibility. Cybercrime has a high payoff and very low risk, so this problem is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. You cannot rely on third parties to protect you.

If you want to make sure that you protected, you segment out your life. For example, I have six different credit cards. I have one just for gas, one just for Amazon, one just for bill paying. And by doing that, now if there’s an issue, it’s not only contained and control, but it’s much easier for me to go in and get a new card.

How much of an impact does a person’s digital footprint have on their tendency to be attacked? Does having a greater amount of active accounts equate to greater risk?

Having a bigger digital footprint does increase your tendency, but it’s basically your public digital footprint. Every time you go to a site and you want to download a document, or somebody’s gonna give you a free gift, or they’re gonna give you a PDF, and they say, “please enter your name, your email address, and your phone number,” those are the things that really increase your probability of being a target. Some of those are good, lots of them are bad.

Adversaries will try every place they can to get that information. We’ve seen a lot of attacks where people on Craigslist will give their name, their phone number, and their email address. That’s public information, that anyone can see. Setting up an account isn’t really gonna increase your risk, if those are private accounts, if those are different passwords, if those are strong passwords. That’s OK. It’s the public information, the social media. The things you put out there that anyone can find will put a much bigger target on your back for a cyber criminal to come after you.

People often think about cybersecurity as someone taking control of an email account or similar, rather than compromising a physical token like an ATM card. How can we protect against credit and debit card fraud, whether online or in person?

First and foremost, repeat after me – credit cards are good, debit cards are bad; credit cards are good, debit cards are bad. You want to stay away from debit cards. If you want to use a debit card to go to the money machine and take money out, that’s one thing, but you do not want to use debit cards online, in stores or anywhere else.

There are laws that protect you on credit cards. Debit cards have no such laws.

The reason is, one, there are laws that protect you on credit cards. Debit cards have no such laws. Yes, many banks are usually nice about it, but they don’t have to be. If there’s a fraudulent charge on my credit card, it doesn’t come out of my account. It goes out of the credit card company’s account, and now if I debate it, or I contest it for six months while they investigate, they’re out the money and not me. If somebody uses your debit card, it immediately comes out of your bank account. Now, if you contest it for six months, you’re out the money for six months.

Also, be very, very careful of public wireless. Only use wireless in your trusted home. If you’re going to a store, what I do is, as soon as I leave my house, I just turn off wireless. It’s not worth the risk. It’s not worth that exposure. But once again, the most important thing is just common sense. Don’t trust anyone, and be careful of when and where you give out your information.

What are some of the similarities and differences of personal cybersecurity, compared with some of the other roles you’ve filled in your career?

Interestingly, in the last year, we’ve seen two things happening. One, more and more services moving to the cloud. Now that services are moving to the cloud, we can do some oversight of the cloud provider, but really, it’s all about the endpoint. Whether it’s a big company or a small company, or an individual, they all access servers from the internet, so it all comes down to making sure that endpoint is properly protected.

Second, adversaries are realizing that yes, there’s cases like Equifax where their servers were quite vulnerable, and it was very easy to break in, so they went after the servers, but in most cases the weakest link in any organization is the individual. So, the number one method of compromise for an organization is sending a legitimate-looking email to an employee and tricking them into opening an attachment.

Five, ten years ago it would have been extremely different. Today, because both attacks are on the individual, most services are being accessed from the internet, adversaries are doing phishing attacks that look legitimate to trick people. They’re much more similar than they used to be.

Responses were edited for length and readability.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Equifax confirms it suffered a separate data breach in March
• Weekly Rewind: The best Porsches ever, a new Nest security system, Google’s HTC acquisition
• Here are all the places that support Apple Pay
• Joss Stone tossed the script (and recorded her dogs) for ‘Project Mama Earth’
• Pop a cork and sit down. For Slowdive, vinyl is all about the ceremony

North Korea suspected of stealing millions in bitcoin from South Korean exchange

In February 2017, an attack on the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb saw some $7 million in bitcoin and ethereum stolen, although the theft wasn’t actually detected until June. Now, there are signs that the criminals responsible are based in North Korea.

Bithumb is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the country, and indeed one of the top five worldwide. It’s being theorized that North Korea may have carried out the attack in response to financial sanctions put in place as a result of its development of nuclear weaponry, according to a report from BBC News.

Bitcoin has had a record-breaking year, and is currently approaching the $20,000 mark – something that few would have expected would happen so quickly, given the fact that it hadn’t hit $1,000 as of the beginning of 2017. This is especially pertinent to this theft, as it’s thought that the funds that would have been worth around $7 million at the time would now be valued at around $82.7 million.

Digital currency wasn’t the only thing that was stolen in the attack. The hackers also made off with the personal information of over 30,000 users, and apparently demanded a ransom of $5.5 million from the proprietors of Bithumb to ensure that they would delete these records.

South Korean authorities have since determined that the company did not do enough to protect its users, given that their private data was unencrypted, according to a report from Chosun. The government imposed $55,000 in fines on the firm on December 13.

Up until now, digital currencies have not come under scrutiny from South Korea’s financial authorities, but that’s all set to change in the wake of this high-profile situation. This attack could serve as a warning of things to come elsewhere in the world, as criminal activity associated with cryptocurrency seems to be growing in prominence, and various governments seem eager to nip it in the bud.

Bitcoin mining marketplace Nicehash was recently hit by an attack that saw almost $64 million worth of cryptocurrency go missing. As values continue to rise, this kind of crime will only become more lucrative, so we can perhaps expect to see more situations of this nature.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Nearly $64 million in bitcoin is missing following NiceHash marketplace hack
• An estimated $30 billion in Bitcoins may be lost forever
• This Bitcoin collection is worth $75 million — it’s also buried in a landfill
• Ethereum bug locks $280 million of cryptocurrency in owners’ accounts
• Bitcoin is still soaring. What’s the limit?

NYX Professional Makeup brings virtual reality makeup tutorial to select stores

With social media, it’s now easier than ever to access a broad range of makeup tutorials — complete with information on exactly which products are being used. To take the experience to the next level, NYX Professional Makeup has officially rolled out its virtual reality makeup tutorial in partnership with Samsung Gear VR in select stores.

The “Impossibly NYX Professional Makeup” experience allows you to watch makeup tutorials by three different beauty vloggers. Using the Gear VR Controller, viewers can select different products being used within the tutorial to learn more information.

NYX showed Digital Trends a demonstration of the tutorials using Samsung Gear VR. In the beginning, you’re asked to fill out your basic information and answer a quick survey about your skin type. You’re then greeted by three different makeup vloggers — Kristen Leanne, Mykie, and Karen Sarahi Gonzales — and can choose which tutorial you’d like to experience based on the different looks each one has to offer.

Using the controller, you can swipe over one of the three vloggers to learn more about their social media following and see a preview of the finished look. As you watch the tutorials, you’ll see each product float across the screen in front of you — giving you an up close look along with details like pricing and exact names.

But the tutorial is filmed a bit differently than the ones you might be used to seeing on Instagram or YouTube. Rather than shooting close up, they sit farther back at a table while still explaining the process and making it more informative.

Our favorite feature was the ability to pause the tutorial to zoom in on the fully made-up face. Using the controller, you can see parts of the look in more detail such as eye shadow and contouring. Once you’re done, you can then choose to head back to the tutorial to finish up the rest of the look.

NYX’s launch into the technology space with the help of Samsung isn’t a first for makeup brands. Last month, MAC Cosmetics launched its own beauty mirror with the help of ModiFace’s AR technology. Rather than physically trying on makeup, customers can use the mirror to preview what a specific product would look like.

With the NYX VR experience, customers can use it to preview different types of looks that are possible with NYX makeup products. Since you’re already in the store, you can then easily purchase the exact products to create the same look.

The “Impossibly NYX Professional Makeup” is currently available for use in select stores within New York City and Los Angeles. It will also roll out across all of the brand’s retail locations throughout 2018.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Impossibly NYX Professional Makeup powered by Samsung GearVR
• MAC Virtual Try-on Mirror review
• How to photograph the stars: 9 steps to stunning night images
• DIY your own Snapchat World Lenses with new (and free) Lens Studio
• Give Rachael Ray a run for her money with these 11 best cooking apps

No, those aren’t giant hands — the Tiny T1 is the world’s smallest mobile phone

As hard as it may be for younger readers to believe, there was a time before “phablets” became a thing, when cellphone companies were in a race against one another to see who could create the world’s smallest handset. Jump forward a decade and a half, and that particular fed has gone the way of nu metal, “bullet time” effects, and personalized ringtones — but one company wants to bring it back, and they’ve created the “world’s smallest mobile phone” to show just how serious they are.

“The creation of the Zanco Tiny T1 was motivated purely by the challenge of whether or not it was possible to create a phone so small,” Robert Lattibeaudiere, operations manager at creators Clubit New Media, told Digital Trends. “In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum, ‘We spent so long figuring out if we could, we never stopped to ask if we should.’”

Compared to your shiny new iPhone X, the Tiny T1 can’t do a whole lot. You won’t be unlocking it with your face or using it to check out the latest apps — but that’s kind of the point. Instead, it can store up to 300 phone numbers and 50 SMS, while being tiny enough that you can take it with you at times when you don’t necessarily want to be carrying around a larger, expensive new handset. Its Kickstarter campaign also notes that it, “will work with any mobile phone network. You can change the nano-SIM at any time if you want to change your network, too. The tiny phone operates on the 2G network. The battery has 3 days standby and 180 minutes talk time.”

Lattibeaudiere points out that the device is also good news for parents who want a way of being able to contact their young kid, without necessarily exposing them to the dangers of online influences and cyberbullying.

While Kickstarter campaigns can be unpredictable, Lattibeaudiere assures us that the Zanco Tiny T1 is currently a fully functioning prototype, and is ready to go into mass production. “Once the Kickstarter has ended it will only be an estimated 14 weeks to produce and deliver to backers,” he said. “It has taken 2 years of research and development to get to this point. The Kickstarter is to ascertain if the world is ready for a phone so small.”

If you’d like to get your hands (or, well your fingers) on the Tiny T1, you can place a pre-order on Kickstarter, where prices start at 30 British pounds ($40). Shipping is set to take place in May 2018.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Developer claims ‘Project Phoenix’ creator stole from Kickstarter
• The Unihertz Jelly phone packs a lot of features in a tiny body
• Amazon can now ship a house to your home, though delivery costs $3,700
• Performance artist serves itty-bitty empanadas, more from a tiny street kitchen
• Spire’s tiny health tracker tags can smarten up your dumb clothes

No, those aren’t giant hands — the Tiny T1 is the world’s smallest mobile phone

As hard as it may be for younger readers to believe, there was a time before “phablets” became a thing, when cellphone companies were in a race against one another to see who could create the world’s smallest handset. Jump forward a decade and a half, and that particular fed has gone the way of nu metal, “bullet time” effects, and personalized ringtones — but one company wants to bring it back, and they’ve created the “world’s smallest mobile phone” to show just how serious they are.

“The creation of the Zanco Tiny T1 was motivated purely by the challenge of whether or not it was possible to create a phone so small,” Robert Lattibeaudiere, operations manager at creators Clubit New Media, told Digital Trends. “In the immortal words of Jeff Goldblum, ‘We spent so long figuring out if we could, we never stopped to ask if we should.’”

Compared to your shiny new iPhone X, the Tiny T1 can’t do a whole lot. You won’t be unlocking it with your face or using it to check out the latest apps — but that’s kind of the point. Instead, it can store up to 300 phone numbers and 50 SMS, while being tiny enough that you can take it with you at times when you don’t necessarily want to be carrying around a larger, expensive new handset. Its Kickstarter campaign also notes that it, “will work with any mobile phone network. You can change the nano-SIM at any time if you want to change your network, too. The tiny phone operates on the 2G network. The battery has 3 days standby and 180 minutes talk time.”

Lattibeaudiere points out that the device is also good news for parents who want a way of being able to contact their young kid, without necessarily exposing them to the dangers of online influences and cyberbullying.

While Kickstarter campaigns can be unpredictable, Lattibeaudiere assures us that the Zanco Tiny T1 is currently a fully functioning prototype, and is ready to go into mass production. “Once the Kickstarter has ended it will only be an estimated 14 weeks to produce and deliver to backers,” he said. “It has taken 2 years of research and development to get to this point. The Kickstarter is to ascertain if the world is ready for a phone so small.”

If you’d like to get your hands (or, well your fingers) on the Tiny T1, you can place a pre-order on Kickstarter, where prices start at 30 British pounds ($40). Shipping is set to take place in May 2018.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Developer claims ‘Project Phoenix’ creator stole from Kickstarter
• The Unihertz Jelly phone packs a lot of features in a tiny body
• Amazon can now ship a house to your home, though delivery costs $3,700
• Performance artist serves itty-bitty empanadas, more from a tiny street kitchen
• Spire’s tiny health tracker tags can smarten up your dumb clothes

No mo’ FOMO — here’s how to delete your Snapchat account

Snapchat is one of the more popular social media networks, particularly for the younger demographic. While at times controversial, the multimedia messaging app, known for its ephemeral messages (usually referred to as a snap) and wacky filters, is a fun way to share your life as it happens. With the app’s Stories feature, you can post pictures or videos of your daily activities, for anyone who follows you to see (but they will still disappear after 24 hours).

But we recognize that Snapchat isn’t for everyone. If you’ve found yourself perplexed with the inner workings of the app, or you have grown tired of the stickers and snaps you receive, deleting your account might be the best way to preserve your sanity. It’s estimated that the average Snapchatter spends 25 to 30 minutes in the app every day, and opens it an average of 18 times. Deleting your Snapchat account could save you a lot of time and battery power in the long run.

Ready to ghost? Here’s how to delete your Snapchat account.

Time to pull the plug

Step 1:  Unfortunately, Snapchat doesn’t allow you to delete your account directly from the mobile app. Instead, you’ll need to head over to Snapchat’s website using your browser — this should work in just about any browser, including the ones on your phone.

Step 2: Once you are on the correct page, enter the appropriate credentials (username or email, and password), and click the Log in button.

Step 3: Next, locate the “Delete My Account” button near the bottom of the resulting menu. You have to enter your password one more time.

Step 4: If you see the image above, then you’re done. Snapchat will immediately deactivate your account, but you have to wait 30 days before the account is permanently deleted. This is somewhat of a safety feature, in case you change your mind and can’t live without dancing hot dogs or some other filter. If you choose to do so, you may reactive your account by logging back in. Note: You won’t be able to retrieve or change your password while your account is deactivated.

Social media can be a great way to connect with friends or build your personal network, but sometimes we can find ourselves lost in all the noise. All it takes is one bad experience or the desire to be more productive, to encourage people to step away from their phones once in a while. No matter what your reasons are for taking a break, we’re here to help.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Break free of the social network: Here’s how to delete your Facebook account
• Stream yourself in a virtual costume with Instagram’s new live face filters
• Need a fresh start? Here’s how to factory reset a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus
• Best parental control apps for your kid’s smartphone
• The 30 best Mac apps if you’re new to Apple

New microscope uses A.I. smarts to diagnose deadly blood infections

As technology goes, microscopes are pretty smart, allowing us to examine samples blown up thousands of times their original size. But what if a microscope was able to identify what it was looking at? And what if this capability could be used to save people’s lives?

That’s the idea behind new work carried out by microbiologists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), a teaching hospital at Harvard Medical School. Researchers there have developed a microscope that’s enhanced by machine learning technology to help diagnose potentially deadly blood infections, greatly improving patients’ odds of survival in the process.

“When someone has an infection in the hospital, patient samples are sent to a microbiology laboratory, where a diagnosis is made,” Dr. James Kirby, director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at BIDMC and associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, told Digital Trends. “There are different types of infections including bacterial, fungus, and parasites. These could be bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections, pneumonia, or diarrhea. The patient sample is examined under a microscope by a microbiology technologist, who recognize shapes, colors, and patterns of the organisms, and determines the class or type of infectious agent. This critical information is used by physicians to choose effective treatment.”

So why use artificial intelligence (A.I.)? The reason is that it takes years to become an expert who can accurately and consistently recognize microbes. It also takes a long time to review a sample — something that’s less and less easy to do in busy modern labs. To create a high-tech alternative, the researchers trained a convolutional neural network to recognize infectious agents in patient samples by showing it 100,000 training images. In tests, it was an astonishing 95 percent accurate at making diagnoses.

“We can envision an A.I. that makes a primary diagnosis once it goes through its full pace of training and becomes expert,” Kirby continued. “However, one thing we are really excited about is something we call ‘technologist assist.’ The idea is to combine the skills of a microbiology technologist and A.I. Specifically, an automated microscope will capture hundreds of images from the patient specimen. The A.I. program would then identify select images containing microbes and present them to a technologist on a computer screen with a proposed diagnosis. The technologist would then scan the on-screen images and confirm the diagnosis. Microbes are often very rare in specimens, and it may take a long time for a technologist to identify microbes through the standard manual way. Technologist assist would reduce the technologist time needed for a diagnosis to seconds.”

A paper describing the project was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Tweet-analyzing algorithm can detect depression sooner than a human doctor
• Weekly Rewind: Galaxy Note 8 vs. iPhone 8, paper lightsabers, Nissan Leaf review
• If young blood can really halt death, things are going to get weird
• Why human-robot relationships are totally a good thing
• The best movies on Hulu