The best gaming keyboards you can buy

Your PC is the core of your gaming experience, whether it’s a desktop or a laptop. But like a Reece’s cup full of chocolate, it’s not complete without the tasty peanut butter. You need a mouse for reliable, accurate targeting, and a great keyboard for handling your movements and commands. Sure, gaming laptops can provide decent keyboards for on-the-go gaming, but when you’re sitting at the desk, a full-featured standalone mechanical keyboard is simply the best way to go.

There are more game-focused models on the market than we can count, but we have a batch we’ve put together that we highly recommend. It should be noted that all models listed below are “mechanical,” meaning they rely on spring-activated switches versus the pressure pads used in “membrane” keyboards. If you’re a gamer, you already know why mechanical keyboards are the only serious option.

Finally, our list comprises of three categories: full-sized keyboards packing everything under the sun, compact models without the number pad (tenkeyless), compact models with a number pad, and budget keyboards you can get for under $100.

Our pick

Corsair K70 RGB Rapidfire ($169)

We totally get that this keyboard has a high price tag, but it’s definitely worth every penny. In fact, some of us use it on a daily basis even outside of gaming due to its sturdy design, built-in multimedia keys, and key “sensitivity.” That latter aspect is due to the peripheral’s use of Cherry MX Speed RGB mechanical switches that provide a key actuation distance of 1.2mm versus the typical 2mm distance in standard mechanical keyboards. That 0.8mm difference does make a difference, and we love it.

Outside the speed aspect, the switches support 16.8 million colors that are customizable through Corsair’s desktop utility. There are six multimedia keys in all (one of which is a volume up-down roller), and a USB pass-though port for connecting a headset or mouse that can’t reach the back of your PC. There are no dedicated macro keys, but you can assign commands to any key using profiles created in Corsair’s desktop software. The keyboard even includes a separate set of special WASD key caps.

Check out our review here.

See it

Best full-size keyboard options

Razer BlackWidow Chroma V2 ($170)

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

What’s a gaming keyboard roundup without a product by Razer? Like Logitech, Razer takes the proprietary road with this keyboard by using its in-house “Green” mechanical switches. Built specifically for gaming, they provide a distinct audible click and a tactile bump for gamers who require feedback from key presses. Razer also sells the BlackWidow Chroma V2 with its silent “Orange” (tactile) and “Yellow” (linear) switches too.

Feature-wise, Razer’s keyboard includes five dedicated macro keys, but no media keys. But it does include a USB pass-through port that’s complemented by jacks for audio output and microphone input. All keys can be programmed through the company’s Synapse desktop software along with Chroma-branded backlighting supporting 16.8 million colors. The keyboard includes a detachable ergonomic wrist rest for long gaming marathons.

See it

Logitech G910 Orion Spectrum ($180) / Spark ($180)

Logitech G910 Orion Spark

The difference between the two appears to be only cosmetic. The Spectrum includes a single palm rest spanning its width, and cylindrical keycaps for fast key presses. Meanwhile, the Spark features two uniquely-angled palm rests, and special indented key caps to “prevent mistyping.” Otherwise, both feature the same number of dedicated macro keys (nine), maximum key rollover (over 26), and dedicated audio controls.

The two G910 keyboards include a holder for your smartphone so the device can serve as a second screen, This is accomplished through the Arx Control app that provides in-game controls in supporting titles, in-game information, system statistics, and more. The keyboards are also based on Logitech’s proprietary Romer-G switches designed and optimized for gaming. These switches provide RGB illumination, an actuation distance of 1.5mm, and promise a duration of 70 million key presses.

Spectrum Spark

Best compact keyboards (without numpad)

Logitech G Pro ($130)

Here’s another portable mechanical keyboard without the number pad. The company’s primary focus was to improve the duration between touching the key caps, and the parent PC’s receipt of the keystroke command. That journey starts with using Logitech’s proprietary Romer-G mechanical switches with a 1.5mm actuation point, then moves to converting that signal into USB-based data, and ends with the data transferring to the host PC at a rate of 1,000 times per second.

Logitech says this keyboard is ideal for eSports professionals. Notable features include a detachable USB cable, 26-key rollover (meaning it can identify 26 simultaneously-pressed keys), per-key RGB lighting supporting 16.8 million colors, and profiles for more than 300 games already created via the Logitech Gaming Software desktop program. There are no dedicated macro keys, but you can assign macros to the keyboard’s function keys (F1 to F12).

Our review of this keyboard can be read here.

See it

Razer BlackWidow X Tournament Edition Chroma ($130)

Here’s a highly-solid, highly-popular mechanical keyboard from Razer without the number pad. It’s based on the company’s proprietary “Green” switches sporting a tactile and “clicky” feedback. These switches are backed by per-key RGB illumination, and a durability of 80 million keystrokes. They’re installed in a military-grade metal foundation for an attractive, sturdy solution that will last for years to come.

Unlike its larger BlackWidow brothers, this model doesn’t include dedicated macro keys. Instead, you can assign these commands through Razer’s Synapse desktop software. There are no media keys either, so all media-related functions are pushed through the function keys. Other notable features include 1,000Hz ultrapolling, 10 key roll-over, cable management routing, and support for Razer’s Chroma illumination platform, which synchronizes colors and lighting effects across all supported Razer devices.

See it

Best budget keyboard

Corsair Compact K63 ($67)

Here’s another keyboard we like to use in-house. It’s a solid mechanical solution built for easy transportation, and relies on Cherry MX Red switches complemented by a sole red per-key illumination. There’s nothing wrong with having a single color versus a palate of millions: red illumination is better than no lighting at all. The K63’s red lighting is backed by key caps with large fonts so you’re not fighting to locate keys instead of the on-screen opponents.

Due to its size, you won’t find dedicated macro keys. Instead, you can record macros using Corsair’s desktop software called Corsair Utility Engine (CUE). You can also use this software to create profiles that load when assigned to your favorite games, such as pre-determined key illumination, lighting effects, event assignments, key remapping, and more. But Corsair’s keyboard does provide a button to lock the Windows key, a button for setting the illumination at various brightness levels, and dedicated media keys.

You can read our review here.

See it

Best compact keyboard (with numpad!)

Cooler Master MasterKeys Pro M RGB ($150)

Technically, keyboards without the number pad (tenkeyless) are compact, but this model is seemingly in its own class. It includes a number pad, but it’s shorter in width than the full-size “large” Pro L RGB version, but wider than the “small” Pro S RGB version. Thus, this “medium” Pro M version seemingly combines the best of both worlds by merging the number pad, arrow keys, and the INS/DEL/END keys together into one solution.

With the Pro M, there are no dedicated macro or media keys. On the macro front, you can assign commands to any key using the built-in “on-the-fly” system as seen with the other two models, or use Cooler Master’s “hassle free” software. Meanwhile, all media controls are piped through the function keys. But like the Pro L and Pro S versions, you get RGB per-key backlighting, a 32-bit processor handling your keystrokes, and silent tactile feedback via Cherry MX Brown switches. Versions served up with Cherry MX Blue, Red, and Silver switches are available as well.

See it

Editors’ Recommendations

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• The 20 best Xbox One games you can play right now
• Looking for a bargain? Check out our top three Amazon tech deals for Thursday

Your next phone could unlock by reading your lips, ears, or even heart

Who has time in today’s busy world to punch in written pass codes whenever they want to unlock their computer or mobile device? Nobody, that’s who! It’s for this reason that biometric security systems have been on the rise for the past several years — whether it’s fingerprint sensors or Face ID-style facial recognition. Not only are biometrics more secure (it’s a whole lot harder for someone to steal your face than your password), but there’s also no way for you to forget them.

However, while fingerprints and facial recognition are the hot biometric techniques right now, they’re by no means the only solutions available. Here are 7 others that could be keeping our devices secure in the years to come. Maybe.

A moment on the lips

Spoken passwords are all well and good until someone makes a recording of you speaking, or a talented impressionist impersonates you. One extra safeguard to make sure that the pass code speaker is really you? Watch a person’s lips as they speak it.

Researchers have explored a couple different ways to do this. At Hong Kong Baptist University, engineers have developed a computational learning model that examines the visual features of a person’s lips, including shape, texture, and movement.

Meanwhile, at Florida State University in Tallahassee, a similar goal is being pursued using sonar. Called VoiceGesture, the Florida State system effectively turns your smartphone into a Doppler radar, transmitting a high-frequency sound from the device’s speaker and then listening to the reflections on the microphone when a person says their password.

Both approaches can offer an extra level of protection on top of existing voice biometrics.

It’s not what you said, but how you said it

University of Michigan

Another possible solution to voice biometric spoofing is one pioneered by researchers at the University of Michigan. They’ve developed a wearable device — which currently takes the form of a necklace, ear buds, or glasses — and uses an accelerometer to measure the subtle skin vibrations in a person’s face, throat, or chest when they speak.

Finding a way of incorporating it into a consumer-level device may be tough, but it could certainly add another level of security to voice-based biometrics.

It’s all in your “heartprint”

You know those cheesy 1980s movies where a character is told that the way to resolve their angsty teen problem is to listen to their heart? Well, it turns out that the same is true for security — except substituting the words “angsty teen problem” with “biometrics spoofing attack.”

At the State University of New York at Buffalo, researchers have created a heart biometric system that uses Doppler radar (again) to find and receive information about the unique signature of a user’s heart motion and associated traits.

The system is reportedly as safe to use as any other Wi-Fi device, requires just 8 seconds of initial “heart data” to train, and — best of all — can be used for continuous authentication. That means that, rather than asking a user for their password just once when they log in, the system could continually watch to make sure it’s still you who is using it.

The sniff test

Pixabay / Creative Commons

“Smells like you. Come on in!” At least, that’s the basis for research from the Group of Biometrics, Biosignals and Security at the Polytechnical University of Madrid. Their work is based on the fact that everyone has his or her own odor, which remains steady, and this can lead to accurate identification of a person within a group that’s higher than 85 percent.

In theory, a bloodhound-style body odor “sniff test” to ID individuals could be a nonintrusive way to recognize individuals. In practice, a 15 percent error rate would be unacceptably high (compare it to Apple’s reported 1 in 1 million error rate for Face ID) and may be hard to gather in certain environmental conditions. This could turn out to be the basis for promising later research, though.

Butt-based biometrics

Unlocking your new smartphone using your unique butt print sounds like something that even Apple’s marketing wizards would struggle to sell to the masses. But that probably isn’t how this would be used. Pioneered by engineers at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo, the idea is to embed 360 sensors into car seats to analyze the, erm, size, shape, pressure points, and weight distribution of drivers’ posteriors.

Only those with the correct butt can start the car. That’s probably not good for heading back to work after gorging yourself over Christmas — but on the plus side, you could probably combine it with the smell sensor described above to make something hilariously gross.

Good vibrations

One issue with fingerprint sensors is that the actual “sensing” area they work with is typically limited to a small button on either the front or rear of a mobile device. That wouldn’t be the case with a similar finger-reading biometrics system developed by Rutgers University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Their VibWrite system isn’t based on fingerprint recognition, but rather the unique signatures given off by finger vibrations. As a result of not needing fingerprint scanners, the inexpensive system could be applied to any surface — letting you add an authentication element to everything from opening your car door to switching on your desktop computer. Accuracy levels are currently in excess of 95 percent.

What’s going on ear?

What’s the one part of our body that’s virtually guaranteed to be pressed against our phones at some point? No, take your mind out of the gutter, we’re talking about our ears! The idea of ear-based biometrics has been explored for some time, with the idea being that each ear’s unique curves and other features could make for a brilliant fingerprint-style security system.

It’s an intriguing prospect, although having to imprint the side of your head on your smartphone every time you want to unlock it would be more than a little annoying. It would enable your device to continuously authenticate that you’re using the phone whenever you make a call, though!

Editors’ Recommendations

• Is face time over? New biometric tech identifies you through your ‘heartprint’
• Forget Face ID, VoiceGesture reads your lips with sonar to unlock your phone
• VibWrite can transform any surface into a secure biometric ID sensor
• Honeywell’s Smart Home Security System gives you an easy way to guard your home
• The Sensoria Smart Running Shoes bring high tech to your feet

Your next phone could unlock by reading your lips, ears, or even heart

Who has time in today’s busy world to punch in written pass codes whenever they want to unlock their computer or mobile device? Nobody, that’s who! It’s for this reason that biometric security systems have been on the rise for the past several years — whether it’s fingerprint sensors or Face ID-style facial recognition. Not only are biometrics more secure (it’s a whole lot harder for someone to steal your face than your password), but there’s also no way for you to forget them.

However, while fingerprints and facial recognition are the hot biometric techniques right now, they’re by no means the only solutions available. Here are 7 others that could be keeping our devices secure in the years to come. Maybe.

A moment on the lips

Spoken passwords are all well and good until someone makes a recording of you speaking, or a talented impressionist impersonates you. One extra safeguard to make sure that the pass code speaker is really you? Watch a person’s lips as they speak it.

Researchers have explored a couple different ways to do this. At Hong Kong Baptist University, engineers have developed a computational learning model that examines the visual features of a person’s lips, including shape, texture, and movement.

Meanwhile, at Florida State University in Tallahassee, a similar goal is being pursued using sonar. Called VoiceGesture, the Florida State system effectively turns your smartphone into a Doppler radar, transmitting a high-frequency sound from the device’s speaker and then listening to the reflections on the microphone when a person says their password.

Both approaches can offer an extra level of protection on top of existing voice biometrics.

It’s not what you said, but how you said it

University of Michigan

Another possible solution to voice biometric spoofing is one pioneered by researchers at the University of Michigan. They’ve developed a wearable device — which currently takes the form of a necklace, ear buds, or glasses — and uses an accelerometer to measure the subtle skin vibrations in a person’s face, throat, or chest when they speak.

Finding a way of incorporating it into a consumer-level device may be tough, but it could certainly add another level of security to voice-based biometrics.

It’s all in your “heartprint”

You know those cheesy 1980s movies where a character is told that the way to resolve their angsty teen problem is to listen to their heart? Well, it turns out that the same is true for security — except substituting the words “angsty teen problem” with “biometrics spoofing attack.”

At the State University of New York at Buffalo, researchers have created a heart biometric system that uses Doppler radar (again) to find and receive information about the unique signature of a user’s heart motion and associated traits.

The system is reportedly as safe to use as any other Wi-Fi device, requires just 8 seconds of initial “heart data” to train, and — best of all — can be used for continuous authentication. That means that, rather than asking a user for their password just once when they log in, the system could continually watch to make sure it’s still you who is using it.

The sniff test

Pixabay / Creative Commons

“Smells like you. Come on in!” At least, that’s the basis for research from the Group of Biometrics, Biosignals and Security at the Polytechnical University of Madrid. Their work is based on the fact that everyone has his or her own odor, which remains steady, and this can lead to accurate identification of a person within a group that’s higher than 85 percent.

In theory, a bloodhound-style body odor “sniff test” to ID individuals could be a nonintrusive way to recognize individuals. In practice, a 15 percent error rate would be unacceptably high (compare it to Apple’s reported 1 in 1 million error rate for Face ID) and may be hard to gather in certain environmental conditions. This could turn out to be the basis for promising later research, though.

Butt-based biometrics

Unlocking your new smartphone using your unique butt print sounds like something that even Apple’s marketing wizards would struggle to sell to the masses. But that probably isn’t how this would be used. Pioneered by engineers at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo, the idea is to embed 360 sensors into car seats to analyze the, erm, size, shape, pressure points, and weight distribution of drivers’ posteriors.

Only those with the correct butt can start the car. That’s probably not good for heading back to work after gorging yourself over Christmas — but on the plus side, you could probably combine it with the smell sensor described above to make something hilariously gross.

Good vibrations

One issue with fingerprint sensors is that the actual “sensing” area they work with is typically limited to a small button on either the front or rear of a mobile device. That wouldn’t be the case with a similar finger-reading biometrics system developed by Rutgers University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Their VibWrite system isn’t based on fingerprint recognition, but rather the unique signatures given off by finger vibrations. As a result of not needing fingerprint scanners, the inexpensive system could be applied to any surface — letting you add an authentication element to everything from opening your car door to switching on your desktop computer. Accuracy levels are currently in excess of 95 percent.

What’s going on ear?

What’s the one part of our body that’s virtually guaranteed to be pressed against our phones at some point? No, take your mind out of the gutter, we’re talking about our ears! The idea of ear-based biometrics has been explored for some time, with the idea being that each ear’s unique curves and other features could make for a brilliant fingerprint-style security system.

It’s an intriguing prospect, although having to imprint the side of your head on your smartphone every time you want to unlock it would be more than a little annoying. It would enable your device to continuously authenticate that you’re using the phone whenever you make a call, though!

Editors’ Recommendations

• Is face time over? New biometric tech identifies you through your ‘heartprint’
• Forget Face ID, VoiceGesture reads your lips with sonar to unlock your phone
• VibWrite can transform any surface into a secure biometric ID sensor
• Honeywell’s Smart Home Security System gives you an easy way to guard your home
• The Sensoria Smart Running Shoes bring high tech to your feet

Your next phone could unlock by reading your lips, ears, or even heart

Who has time in today’s busy world to punch in written pass codes whenever they want to unlock their computer or mobile device? Nobody, that’s who! It’s for this reason that biometric security systems have been on the rise for the past several years — whether it’s fingerprint sensors or Face ID-style facial recognition. Not only are biometrics more secure (it’s a whole lot harder for someone to steal your face than your password), but there’s also no way for you to forget them.

However, while fingerprints and facial recognition are the hot biometric techniques right now, they’re by no means the only solutions available. Here are 7 others that could be keeping our devices secure in the years to come. Maybe.

A moment on the lips

Spoken passwords are all well and good until someone makes a recording of you speaking, or a talented impressionist impersonates you. One extra safeguard to make sure that the pass code speaker is really you? Watch a person’s lips as they speak it.

Researchers have explored a couple different ways to do this. At Hong Kong Baptist University, engineers have developed a computational learning model that examines the visual features of a person’s lips, including shape, texture, and movement.

Meanwhile, at Florida State University in Tallahassee, a similar goal is being pursued using sonar. Called VoiceGesture, the Florida State system effectively turns your smartphone into a Doppler radar, transmitting a high-frequency sound from the device’s speaker and then listening to the reflections on the microphone when a person says their password.

Both approaches can offer an extra level of protection on top of existing voice biometrics.

It’s not what you said, but how you said it

University of Michigan

Another possible solution to voice biometric spoofing is one pioneered by researchers at the University of Michigan. They’ve developed a wearable device — which currently takes the form of a necklace, ear buds, or glasses — and uses an accelerometer to measure the subtle skin vibrations in a person’s face, throat, or chest when they speak.

Finding a way of incorporating it into a consumer-level device may be tough, but it could certainly add another level of security to voice-based biometrics.

It’s all in your “heartprint”

You know those cheesy 1980s movies where a character is told that the way to resolve their angsty teen problem is to listen to their heart? Well, it turns out that the same is true for security — except substituting the words “angsty teen problem” with “biometrics spoofing attack.”

At the State University of New York at Buffalo, researchers have created a heart biometric system that uses Doppler radar (again) to find and receive information about the unique signature of a user’s heart motion and associated traits.

The system is reportedly as safe to use as any other Wi-Fi device, requires just 8 seconds of initial “heart data” to train, and — best of all — can be used for continuous authentication. That means that, rather than asking a user for their password just once when they log in, the system could continually watch to make sure it’s still you who is using it.

The sniff test

Pixabay / Creative Commons

“Smells like you. Come on in!” At least, that’s the basis for research from the Group of Biometrics, Biosignals and Security at the Polytechnical University of Madrid. Their work is based on the fact that everyone has his or her own odor, which remains steady, and this can lead to accurate identification of a person within a group that’s higher than 85 percent.

In theory, a bloodhound-style body odor “sniff test” to ID individuals could be a nonintrusive way to recognize individuals. In practice, a 15 percent error rate would be unacceptably high (compare it to Apple’s reported 1 in 1 million error rate for Face ID) and may be hard to gather in certain environmental conditions. This could turn out to be the basis for promising later research, though.

Butt-based biometrics

Unlocking your new smartphone using your unique butt print sounds like something that even Apple’s marketing wizards would struggle to sell to the masses. But that probably isn’t how this would be used. Pioneered by engineers at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo, the idea is to embed 360 sensors into car seats to analyze the, erm, size, shape, pressure points, and weight distribution of drivers’ posteriors.

Only those with the correct butt can start the car. That’s probably not good for heading back to work after gorging yourself over Christmas — but on the plus side, you could probably combine it with the smell sensor described above to make something hilariously gross.

Good vibrations

One issue with fingerprint sensors is that the actual “sensing” area they work with is typically limited to a small button on either the front or rear of a mobile device. That wouldn’t be the case with a similar finger-reading biometrics system developed by Rutgers University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Their VibWrite system isn’t based on fingerprint recognition, but rather the unique signatures given off by finger vibrations. As a result of not needing fingerprint scanners, the inexpensive system could be applied to any surface — letting you add an authentication element to everything from opening your car door to switching on your desktop computer. Accuracy levels are currently in excess of 95 percent.

What’s going on ear?

What’s the one part of our body that’s virtually guaranteed to be pressed against our phones at some point? No, take your mind out of the gutter, we’re talking about our ears! The idea of ear-based biometrics has been explored for some time, with the idea being that each ear’s unique curves and other features could make for a brilliant fingerprint-style security system.

It’s an intriguing prospect, although having to imprint the side of your head on your smartphone every time you want to unlock it would be more than a little annoying. It would enable your device to continuously authenticate that you’re using the phone whenever you make a call, though!

Editors’ Recommendations

• Is face time over? New biometric tech identifies you through your ‘heartprint’
• Forget Face ID, VoiceGesture reads your lips with sonar to unlock your phone
• VibWrite can transform any surface into a secure biometric ID sensor
• Honeywell’s Smart Home Security System gives you an easy way to guard your home
• The Sensoria Smart Running Shoes bring high tech to your feet

Deako is a smart lighting system that doesn’t require smart bulbs

When people think about the design of their home, their minds often go first to the furniture, decor, and appliances. One oft-overlooked factor that determines whether a house feels homey is the lighting. Too bright lighting can give residents a headache, while too dim lighting can cause squinting and bumping into things. Having proper lighting in the home can improve the mood and efficiency of those who live in the house, whether you’re going for a spooky effect for Halloween or a practical solution to prevent tripping. While many smart lighting systems require smart lightbulbs in order to function properly, Deako doesn’t. What’s more is that this smart lighting system allows you to control the lights in your home with or without your mobile device.

The Smart Dimmer, priced at $90, and the Smart Switch, priced at $65, can be controlled with your voice or the Deako mobile app. This means you can control the smart lighting system even if you don’t have your phone handy. Want to save the current lighting scene so that you don’t have to reconfigure it every time? Simply use the app to save up to three at once. For the dimmer, you can slide your finger to adjust the brightness, or use the up and down arrow buttons to adjust it more acutely. The dimmer also supports schedules and countdown timers for added personalization.

With Deako, each faceplate you install can support up to five switches, with the option of adding an outlet as well. This way, you can personalize the switches to each room in the home, and add outlets depending on how often devices are charged in a specific room.

The Deako website explains that the company was born out of necessity: “After researching and living with partial solutions, we realized people really needed an easily upgradable lighting system. People also needed to be able to control the switches with or without their mobile device. The team set about making the idea into a tangible reality — and making it look beautiful while being affordable.”

Bloomberg named Deako one of the 50 most promising startups in 2017.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Noon Home’s DIY smart lighting system helps you set the mood for any occasion
• You don’t need a smart bulb if you have the Kleverness smart light system
• How to create spooky Halloween effects with smart home lighting and sound
• Kirio creates smart homes from scratch, and they learn as you live
• NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin’s house is a smart home masterpiece

A.I. predicts how you vote by looking at where you live on Google Street View

Google Maps’ Street View feature is a great way to explore the world around you, but could it be revealing more about your neighborhood than you think? That’s quite possible, suggests new research coming out of Stanford University. Computer science researchers there have been demonstrated how deep learning artificial intelligence can scour the images on Google Street View and draw conclusions about issues like the political leaning of a particular area — just by looking at the cars parked out on the street.

“We wanted to show that useful insight can be gained from images, the same way people do this for social networks or other textual-based data,” Timnit Gebru, one of the lead researchers on the paper, told Digital Trends. “Some of the car-politics or car-race associations were intuitive, but still surprising that we could capture from our data.”

The deep learning neural network was trained on a dataset of more than 50 million Google Street View images from a variety of cities. This data was then compared to ground census data to help the algorithm make the right connections between race, education, income and voter preferences, and the make, model and year of every car produced since 1990. The artificial intelligence uncovered a number of intriguing tidbits — such as the fact that if the number of sedans in a neighborhood is greater than the number of pickups, there is an 88 percent chance the precinct votes Democrat. More pickups than sedans on your street? That means there’s an 82 percent chance you’re in Republican territory.

While Google is unlikely to add “likely voter demographic” as a tool on Street View anytime soon, the research demonstrates how impressive modern A.I. is — not just in identifying objects, but also at drawing actionable conclusions from this information. As Gebru points out, similar research could be used for exploring things like the links between neighborhoods and health or pollution levels.

A paper describing the work, “Using deep learning and Google Street View to estimate the demographic makeup of neighborhoods across the United States,” was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Wool you look at that: Sheep-powered Google Street View now live
• Google and Aclima show you how bad air pollution in California can be
• Everything you need to know about the 2018 Triumph Motorcycles
• If you think Harley Street bikes look tame, check the Bandit9’s Dark Side custom
• In Honolulu? Text and cross the street and you’ll get a fine

Ticwatch S Review by MrMobile: Android Wear on the cheap

Last year, while mourning the loss of my favorite smartwatch to a Fitbit acquisition, I was given hope by a wearable called the Ticwatch 2. It featured an innovative operating system and a very clever touch-sensitive strip for controlling it. Recently, almost 20,000 people pledged about 3.2 million dollars on Kickstarter to bring its two sequels to life.

The Ticwatch S and E models are the result, and I got to check out the sportier “S” model during a weeklong review period. The Ticwatch S ditches its predecessor’s proprietary OS for Android Wear, but it also eliminates its single most interesting feature in favor of affordability. With its “tickle strip” ditched and its casing looking a lot like every other fitness watch out there, does the Ticwatch S still stand out? Click on MrMobile’s Ticwatch S Review above to find out!

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Get active noise-cancelling with the $39 Cowin E7 Bluetooth headphones

This is noise-cancelling on a budget.

The Cowin E7 active noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones are down to $38.99 with code CBDEAL11 on Amazon. This price only applies to the Black color. The street price is around $70 usually, but they did drop to $45 for the Black Friday shopping season. Even including that drop, this deal is better and one of the lowest we’ve ever seen.

Features include:

• Advanced active noise reduction technology quells airplane cabin noise, city traffic or a busy office, makes you focus on what you want to hear,enjoy your music, movies and videos. The noise cancellation function can work well both in wire and wireless mode.
• Proprietary 40mm large-aperture drivers. Deep, accurate bass response. Crisp, powerful sound.
• Cowin E7 provides high-quality built-in microphone for hands-free calls, which is convenient for you to free yourself from wires.
• NFC pairing aided by voice prompts promises quick and stable connection with your Bluetooth enabled devices
• The professional protein earpad and 90-degree swiveling earcups. More durability and comfort, Enjoy high-quality, long-listen comfort.
• 30 hours playtime per charge in Bluetooth mode.

These headphones come with an 18-month warranty.

See on Amazon

Samsung’s W2018 flip phone has a camera with an adjustable aperture

The W2018 won’t ever come to the States, but its camera tech might.

Flip phones are still quite popular in certain parts of the world, and in China, Samsung recently announced its new W2018 for the country. The phone will be an exclusive to China Telecom and likely sell for more than $1,500 USD, and although it’ll never make its way to the United States or other parts of the world, there’s something quite interesting going on with its rear camera.

The W2018 comes equipped with a 12MP sensor and an incredibly low f/1.5 aperture, and while that’s impressive enough on its own, the kicker here is that the aperture can actually change to f/2.4.

We haven’t seen this tech on a phone since 2009 with the Nokia N86 MP, and it means that you’ve got flexibility for capturing the best image possible whether you’re in an area with low or ample lighting. The W2018 can only switch back and forth between f/1.5 and f/2.4 with no option to go to aperture ratings in between, but even with that being the case, this is still exciting. We’ve yet to see how this system actually performs in regards to image quality, and while we aren’t certain if the Galaxy S9 will ship with a similar setup in 2018, we’d expect this to make its way to other Samsung handsets at some point down the road.

The W2018’s adjustable aperture in action.

As for other specifications on the W2018, there are two 4.2-inch 1080p Super AMOLED displays, 5MP front-facing camera, Snapdragon 835, 6GB of RAM, USB-C, NFC, and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.

The variable aperture with the W2018’s rear camera is easily the most exciting part of the phone, so be sure to let us know in the comments whether or not this is a feature you’d like to see in future Samsung devices.

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