2017 December 28

28

Dec

Physical keyboards live on! Here are seven QWERTY phones you can buy right now

There is clearly something about using a smartphone with a physical keyboard. Often regarded as defunct tech, QWERTY phones still live, and there are numerous examples still on sale today. Surprisingly, they aren’t all made by BlackBerry, either. If you like the soft click of a key under your finger instead of the cold, unforgiving surface of a touchscreen, then this roundup is especially for you.

Regardless which major network you prefer, there is a QWERTY-equipped smartphone out there with your name on it — even if you want to spend no money at all. Just don’t expect any of them to rival an iPhone X or a Samsung Galaxy S8 when it comes to design and specs. It’s still a smartphone with a built-in keyboard, after all.

The Best

Blackberry KeyOne

If you’re like us, you have a soft spot in your heart for Blackberry phones. With great battery life, unmatched keyboard shortcuts and customization, and excellent build quality you won’t find a lot of QWERTY phones as good as a Blackberry. The Blackberry KeyOne takes the top of our list. This TCL-built smartphone has the superb build quality that you expect from a traditional Blackberry phone. It has a vibrant 4.5-inch, 1080p display, which makes it very sharp at 433 pixels per inch. It is perfectly usable outdoors, although it isn’t the brightest display we’ve ever tried. Out of the box, it comes bundled with Android 7.1.1, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, and 32GB of built-in storage, but there’s a MicroSD card slot in case you need more. Blackberry is all about security, so it comes with added security features, and of course, as you would expect from a Blackberry, the best QWERTY keyboard you’ll find.

The KeyOne will set you back $450 if you buy it from Amazon or BestBuy and $500-$530 if you buy it from Sprint or AT&T. You can opt to pay for it monthly, however, if you buy it through a carrier. You can read our in-depth review of the Blackberry KeyOne to find out why we love it so much.

Buy one now from:

Amazon AT&T Sprint Best Buy

The Rest

BlackBerry Priv

Before the KeyOne, the Priv was the most sought-after phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and for good reason. It was BlackBerry’s flagship and looks much like a standard touchscreen phone, but with a slide-out keyboard that lives under the display when not in use.

In making the Priv, BlackBerry did away with BlackBerry OS in favor of Android, opening up the device to the millions of apps on the Google Play Store, as well as an operating system that you’re probably more familiar with. It also offers a display with 2560 x 1440-pixel resolution, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a MicroSD card to expand on that storage. The rear camera is 18MP, and it’s further by a 2MP front-facing camera. It’s a cool $250-plus to buy unlocked. Read our full review here.

Buy one now from:

AmazonBest Buy Walmart

BlackBerry Passport

The Passport looks like a blend of classic BlackBerry devices and modern design, and while it’s a nice-looking phone, it will only work through GSM carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile.

The price is $195, and for that, you are getting decent specs, including a quad-core Snapdragon processor, a 4.5-inch HD screen, and a 13-megapixel rear camera. The keyboard has been updated for modern times and is designed for total typing accuracy, plus it has a cool set of touch-based gesture controls. Read our full review here.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

BlackBerry Classic

Another BlackBerry device, the Classic is a classic-looking phone indeed. It’s priced at $250, runs BlackBerry 10, and has a 3.5-inch screen above the traditional physical keyboard. It’ll connect to 4G networks, and has an 8-megapixel camera on the back.

The Classic is really aimed at the BlackBerry fanatic – someone who misses the days of BlackBerry being the king of the phone world. If you’re not already familiar with BlackBerry OS, you’ll have to get familiar to use the Classic. The price of the Classic depends entirely on which carrier you’re with. Read our full review here.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

LG Extravert 2

The optimistically named Extravert 2 is another device with a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard, which is covered over by a 3.2-inch touchscreen. It’s a chunky little thing at 15mm thick (twice that of a new iPhone), and only has a 2-megapixel camera on the back, but the battery should last 17 days on standby, which the new iPhone definitely can’t match.

At $89 without a contract, it’s just the right price for a feature phone.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

LG Xpression

The LG Xpression is very similar to the Extravert 2, but made for AT&T instead of Verizon. It features a slide-out keyboard, along with a 2MP camera and Bluetooth 2.1. Yes, it’s outdated, but this wouldn’t be the phone to buy if you needed something up to date. It’s about the same price as the Extravert 2, coming in at $80, and it’s probably just about right for what it has to offer.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

LG Cosmos 3

If the Extravert’s 17 days of standby isn’t enough, then how about the more than 30 offered by the Cosmos 3? This feature phone also has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard hidden underneath a small screen and alphanumeric keypad combo and comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera, and – wait for it – software that includes a tip calculator. Dizzying stuff. You can buy a Verizon Prepaid LG Cosmos 3 for $75 at Amazon.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Update: We checked that all the prices and links are up-to-date, and added the Blackberry KeyOne.

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28

Dec

Ethereum vs. bitcoin: What’s the difference?

Cryptocurrencies can be a little confusing. Are they digital money or more like gold? Are they a new way to pay for things online or a way to store value? Those aren’t easy questions to answer when you’re talking about hundreds of different cryptocurrencies, some old, some new, and some very different from the rest. When you focus Ethereum vs. bitcoin, though, there are some stark, obvious differences.

Their age is the most obvious, with bitcoin having entered this world as the very first global cryptocurrency in 2009 and Ethereum only showing up in 2015 as a potential alternative. Although it is less proven than its predecessor, Ethereum does have a few nifty features which give it a lot more potential than its older sibling in some key areas. For the purpose of this guide, we’ll look at two shared aspects of the cryptocurrencies: Their ability to act as a store of value and as transactional mediums. We’ll also take a look at some of the unique features which make them stand apart.

If you want a more general look at cryptocurrencies, or the steps for how to buy, sell or trade bitcoin and Ethereum, have a read of some of our other guides.

As a store of value

The most successful cryptocurrency for storing value continues to be bitcoin. As the most valuable coin in the world by quite some margin — and the progenitor of the entire cryptocurrency revolution — bitcoin has proven itself. It’s far more recognized than any of its peers, and that makes it easier to buy, store, and sell.

That’s not to say that Ethereum and its coin, Ether, have been ineffective. For such a young currency, Ethereum has proved to be one of the most popular. At the time of writing its market value and 24-hour trading volume are second only to Bitcoin. The actual monetary value for a single “ETH” however, is less than five percent of bitcoin, so owning a few Ether is no way near as pleasant as owning a few bitcoin.

Part of that is down to bitcoins’ built-in scarcity. There is a hard limit on the eventual number of bitcoins, with diminishing returns for miners as they approach that mythical 21 million mark. One day no more bitcoins will be created, and no matter how many end up being lost, no more will be made. Thanks to supply and demand, that means bitcoin should, in theory, grow in value, at least until no more coins appear.

In comparison, Ethereum will continue to release the same amount of Ether on a regular basis forever, so its supply will remain constant and expanding.

Cryptocurrencies are nothing if not volatile, though, and as much as it seems most likely that bitcoin will remain the king of the cryptocurrencies for the foreseeable future, there is no guarantee of that.

As a transactional medium

Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

Although bitcoin is better at storing value than Ethereum, at least for now, Ether has quickly become a preferred method for transferring wealth to and from people and entities. In the middle of 2017, it overtook bitcoin in the number of daily transactions, and that shows no sign of stopping, with more than double the number of transactions taking place with Ether on a daily basis at the time of writing.

This is because Ethereum can be used as a platform for other cryptocurrencies, and also because Ether transactions tend to be confirmed quicker by the blockchain. It’s built to be more efficient than bitcoin, partly through virtue of being a newer and more optimized cryptocurrency. The specifics of it are rather complicated, but if you want to dig into them, there are some great breakdowns that will let you dive as deep as you want to go.

Another advantage of using Ethereum over bitcoin for transactions is that its fees tend to be far lower. Although there is always the potential that Ethereum will face increased fees as it hits the same sort of scaling walls as other cryptocurrencies, that is unlikely to happen in the same manner as it has bitcoin, so fees will likely remain lower for some time to come.

Empowering others

While the main uses of Ethereum and Ether make it quite different from bitcoin, arguably the biggest difference is in the underlying technology itself — and what that means for other cryptocurrencies. Technically, Ethereum isn’t a cryptocurrency at all, but a special kind of blockchain technology that not only powers Ether transfers between people, but can be used to create all kinds of other cryptocurrencies — and it has.

Part of the reason there are so many crpytocoins today is that many of them are built on Ethereum’s underlying technology, even relying on it entirely in some cases. While the specifics of that are beyond the scope of this guide, it’s all possible because of one key feature that Ethereum has that bitcoin doesn’t: Smart contracts.

Where bitcoin supports quite simple scripting (comparatively), Ethereum can handle much more complexity thanks to its smart contract system. It makes it possible to set simple rules which have to be followed, effectively forcing contractual compliance in a manner that would never be possible with a real-world contract, without some sort of middleman.

An example of how that would work, is that it could be used to effectively emulate a crowd-funding website, only releasing a collection of Ether when a threshold has been reached. No Kickstarter company required. Ethereum operates in a manner that is far more decentralizing than bitcoin, even if its monetary impact on the world has yet to reach the heady heights of its bigger and older crypto-brother.

So, which is best?

Jaap Arriens/Getty Images

Although you will easily find people willing to definitively tell you that one cryptocurrency (even outside of the Ethereum vs. bitcoin debate) is better than the other, that would do a disservice to whichever the ‘loser’ is. Both bitcoin and Ethereum have their advantages and like most other cryptocurrencies, which one is right for you is very much dependent on your financial situation and what you want out of your investment.

If you want to buy in to the most proven cryptocurrency with the most developer support, bitcoin is the better of the two currencies. It’s the most expensive out there though and its transaction fees are high, so if you want a big return on what you’re putting into it, you’ll need to have plenty to spend and be patient. Bitcoin has repeatedly swung upwards and downwards in value in recent weeks, and its historic crashes can be devastating for those with big money invested. But as the die-hard fans often say, just “hold.”

If you plan to make more regular transactions, to pay for goods or services, or send cryptocurrency to a loved one, Ethereum is much more manageable. With less of a scaling problem, its blockchain is far more open and you’ll see your currency confirmed far faster. You’ll be charged much less for the privilege too. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than bitcoin in that respect.

As with all of our coverage of cryptocurrency here on Digital Trends though, if you plan to put money into bitcoin or Ethereum, do your research first. This is still a young venture and the future of any and all of them is far from certain.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Bitcoin Cash surpassed Ethereum as world’s second most popular cryptocurrency
Bitcoin is still soaring. What’s the limit?
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28

Dec

Charge your phone from three feet away with the new WattUp from Energous

Most of us have yet to experience the joys of wireless charging — Apple’s AirPower, after all, isn’t due out for a few months yet. But thanks to a new FCC approval, we may be able to skip right past that step in the evolution of powering devices. Meet the WattUp Mid Field transmitter from San Jose-based startup Energous. It claims to be capable of converting electricity into radio frequencies, and then sending the resulting energy to devices up to three feet away. All those devices need are the appropriate receiver to accept the charge. So not only will you not have the plug in your phone in the future, you won’t even need to be all that near a charger in order to rejuice your device.

While today’s wireless charging solutions still require smartphones and tablets to be placed on a charging pad, the WattUp Mid Field transmitter needs no such proximity. In fact, no physical contact is needed whatsoever. And better still, the WattUp purports to be able to recharge several devices at the same time, with no regard for what the device is. So whether it’s your computer, your wireless headphones, or your smartwatch (or all three) that is in need of some more battery, simply place the corresponding receiver on those devices, and power on WattUp.

Energous also noted that its WattUp ecosystem “ensures interoperability between receivers and transmitters, regardless of the manufacturer.” That means if you’ve an Apple device but a Samsung transmitter, you’ll still be able to recharge remotely.

“Older wireless charging technologies have received limited adoption over the past 15 years, and are confined to contact-based charging only. The FCC certification of Energous’ power-at-a-distance wireless charging transmitter is a major market milestone,” Energous president and CEO Stephen R. Rizzone said. “Untethered, wire-free charging — such as charging a fitness band even while wearing it — is exactly what consumers have been waiting for.”

Unfortunately, you’ll still have to wait awhile longer to get your hands on one of these WattUps, as there aren’t any retail units available yet. Energous plans to show off its technology at CES 2018, which will take place January 9-12 in Las Vegas, and we’ll update you with any additional news.

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28

Dec

Charge your phone from three feet away with the new WattUp from Energous

Most of us have yet to experience the joys of wireless charging — Apple’s AirPower, after all, isn’t due out for a few months yet. But thanks to a new FCC approval, we may be able to skip right past that step in the evolution of powering devices. Meet the WattUp Mid Field transmitter from San Jose-based startup Energous. It claims to be capable of converting electricity into radio frequencies, and then sending the resulting energy to devices up to three feet away. All those devices need are the appropriate receiver to accept the charge. So not only will you not have the plug in your phone in the future, you won’t even need to be all that near a charger in order to rejuice your device.

While today’s wireless charging solutions still require smartphones and tablets to be placed on a charging pad, the WattUp Mid Field transmitter needs no such proximity. In fact, no physical contact is needed whatsoever. And better still, the WattUp purports to be able to recharge several devices at the same time, with no regard for what the device is. So whether it’s your computer, your wireless headphones, or your smartwatch (or all three) that is in need of some more battery, simply place the corresponding receiver on those devices, and power on WattUp.

Energous also noted that its WattUp ecosystem “ensures interoperability between receivers and transmitters, regardless of the manufacturer.” That means if you’ve an Apple device but a Samsung transmitter, you’ll still be able to recharge remotely.

“Older wireless charging technologies have received limited adoption over the past 15 years, and are confined to contact-based charging only. The FCC certification of Energous’ power-at-a-distance wireless charging transmitter is a major market milestone,” Energous president and CEO Stephen R. Rizzone said. “Untethered, wire-free charging — such as charging a fitness band even while wearing it — is exactly what consumers have been waiting for.”

Unfortunately, you’ll still have to wait awhile longer to get your hands on one of these WattUps, as there aren’t any retail units available yet. Energous plans to show off its technology at CES 2018, which will take place January 9-12 in Las Vegas, and we’ll update you with any additional news.

Editors’ Recommendations

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28

Dec

Charge your phone from three feet away with the new WattUp from Energous

Most of us have yet to experience the joys of wireless charging — Apple’s AirPower, after all, isn’t due out for a few months yet. But thanks to a new FCC approval, we may be able to skip right past that step in the evolution of powering devices. Meet the WattUp Mid Field transmitter from San Jose-based startup Energous. It claims to be capable of converting electricity into radio frequencies, and then sending the resulting energy to devices up to three feet away. All those devices need are the appropriate receiver to accept the charge. So not only will you not have the plug in your phone in the future, you won’t even need to be all that near a charger in order to rejuice your device.

While today’s wireless charging solutions still require smartphones and tablets to be placed on a charging pad, the WattUp Mid Field transmitter needs no such proximity. In fact, no physical contact is needed whatsoever. And better still, the WattUp purports to be able to recharge several devices at the same time, with no regard for what the device is. So whether it’s your computer, your wireless headphones, or your smartwatch (or all three) that is in need of some more battery, simply place the corresponding receiver on those devices, and power on WattUp.

Energous also noted that its WattUp ecosystem “ensures interoperability between receivers and transmitters, regardless of the manufacturer.” That means if you’ve an Apple device but a Samsung transmitter, you’ll still be able to recharge remotely.

“Older wireless charging technologies have received limited adoption over the past 15 years, and are confined to contact-based charging only. The FCC certification of Energous’ power-at-a-distance wireless charging transmitter is a major market milestone,” Energous president and CEO Stephen R. Rizzone said. “Untethered, wire-free charging — such as charging a fitness band even while wearing it — is exactly what consumers have been waiting for.”

Unfortunately, you’ll still have to wait awhile longer to get your hands on one of these WattUps, as there aren’t any retail units available yet. Energous plans to show off its technology at CES 2018, which will take place January 9-12 in Las Vegas, and we’ll update you with any additional news.

Editors’ Recommendations

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28

Dec

Lenovo’s stand-alone Daydream VR headset finally appears on FCC site, with a name

Documents uploaded to the Federal Communications Commission’s “exhibits list” online directory reveals that Lenovo is getting close to launching its stand-alone VR headset based on Google’s Daydream platform. One document clearly lists the upcoming product as “Mirage Solo with Daydream,” which may not be officially announced for another 180 days based on another document dated on December 11, 2017.

Google revealed HTC and Lenovo as its two main partners producing Daydream-based VR headsets during its developers conference earlier this year. Since then, HTC has jumped ship to “focus” on a similar Google-free stand-alone VR headset sold exclusively in China. Meanwhile, Lenovo’s version remained in development limbo with no release date in sight. Now, at least, we have a name and a possible release window.

The upcoming Android-powered headset will be based on a reference design created by Qualcomm. The big selling point is that it incorporates Google’s WorldSense technology, which doesn’t require external sensors to track the position of your head. The means you can move through physical space to fully interact with the virtual environment without all the wiring associated with desktop-tethered VR headsets.

Of course, in the virtual realm, you can’t see where objects and people reside in physical space. That’s where the “world sense” aspect comes in: The technology maps your current environment, so the headset knows where people are sitting, the location of furniture, and so on. With PC-based headsets like the HTC Vive, owners must manually establish a static “play area” during the setup process, and there’s no object detection.

The Mirage Solo will be a different VR headset than what Lenovo currently offers for Windows 10. Released in October, the $300 Explorer is a “Windows Mixed Reality” headset that requires a compatible Windows 10-based PC, connecting to its HDMI and USB ports using a 13-foot cable. But similar to the stand-alone unit, Lenovo’s PC-based VR headset doesn’t require external sensors to track movement although its not using Google’s WorldSense technology.

Qualcomm’s current stand-alone VR headset reference design is based on the Snapdragon 835 mobile processor. The kit includes an integrated digital signal processor to free up the main processor and graphics cores, an AMOLED display with a 2560 x 1440 resolution, head-tracking cameras, 3D positional audio, and more.

But given that Qualcomm just introduced the Snapdragon 845 chip at the beginning of December, the Mirage Solo would essentially be an outdated device if it lands on the market this spring packing the older Snapdragon 835 chip. Product testing began on September 1 and concluded on December 7, so the device could rely on either chip at this point.

The Mirage Solo’s appearance on the FCC indicates it passed specific tests for Wireless AC and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity. The only “diagram” revealed in the documents is a basic two-second illustration: A rounded rectangle and two circles for the headset, and a larger, single circular for the head strap. This diagram simply shows where Lenovo must place the FCC label.

Editors’ Recommendations

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28

Dec

As sea levels rise, researchers use A.I. to monitor urban flooding

As climate change accelerates, coastal communities around the world face an intimidating foe in rising sea levels. By combining tools like artificial intelligence, social media, and crowdsourcing apps, researchers think they can help these communities prepare for devastating natural disasters.

A team of scientists and engineers from Scotland’s University of Dundee recently demonstrated how a technological trifecta — A.I., social media, and crowdsourced citizen science — can be used to monitor urban flooding.

The Dundee team set out to develop an early flood detection system, beginning with a hyper-resolution urban flooding computer model. For reliability, the researchers needed to validate the model’s results against actual data received on the ground. But after three months of searching for a reliable data set, lead researcher Roger Wang was left empty-handed.

Satellite remote sensing is expensive and too often tainted by technical problems in urban areas, while on-the-ground sensor networks are costly to install and maintain. Even the most common method, witness surveys by government staff, wasn’t in the budget.

Wang and his colleagues found an alternative in Twitter and MyCoast, a crowdsourcing app that collects data on coastal conditions, such as erosion and tides. By scanning Twitter for keywords like “flood,” “dam,” and “levee” the team could identify a flood-like event. Then, using a type of AI called natural language processing (NLP), they could sort these events by factors like severity and location.

“A tweet can be very informative,” Wang told Digital Trends. “It could contain information of flood location, water depth, flooding trend, human feelings, and damage estimate. More importantly, it has a potential to provide hyper-resolution data.” This data can be accurate up to feet, Wang said, if, for example, a user includes the street name and building number.

“Without A.I., there would be a lot of noise in data, since many tweets with keywords can still be irrelevant,” Wang said. NLP helped them identify the locations of Twitter users, while computer vision differentiated flood photos from others non-flood photos.

Wang and his team demonstrated that flood-related tweets correlated to higher precipitation levels, and crowdsourced data was closely linked to actual road closures. They think a tool like Twitter serves better for large-scale monitoring, while an app like MyCoast provides valuable insight at a smaller scale. With these tools, they hope to help communities be proactive when it comes to potential flooding.

The system isn’t perfect. The computer vision program employed by Wang and his team is at 70 percent accuracy, though they’re continuing to train it on MyCoast photos.

The researchers plan to update their model with a physics-based flooding model, allowing them to predict flood development.

A paper detailing the research was recently published in the journal Computers & Geosciences.

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