The Pipe is a futuristic new instrument that looks like a cyberpunk saxophone

From Apple Macintosh originator Jef Raskin’s love of the Renaissance-era cornetto to virtual reality pioneer Jarod Lanier’s mastery of various Asian wind and string instruments, there is a long history of engineers also being brilliant musicians — often using obscure or unusual tools to make their music. Ukraine-born engineer and musician Vlad Kreimer is the latest person to fit into that category, with an innovative mouth-controlled instrument called the Pipe that is capable of transforming a person’s voice into a drumbeat or synth.

“I’m a composer of electronic music, and I always wanted to use my voice, but I’m not a great singer,” Kreimer told Digital Trends. “The biggest problem for me was trying to sing with lyrics. I can write either vocals that have meaning to them but no rhythm, or I can write a good melody for singing, but no meaningful lyrics. I’ve found, in my experience, that the most important part of singing is expressing emotions and feelings. So instead I began using my voice as a lead instrument. Soon I realized that what I actually wanted was to sing like a synthesizer, but I needed to expand the sound of my voice beyond a conventional vocal performance. Eventually, I decided to add special FX processing to a mic to make the voice transformation complete. For me, the most attractive part of the Pipe is that I can make a whole performance with just it.”

He’s not kidding. In addition to a range of vocal distortion algorithms (currently there are eight, although this will soon expand past 12) that can be used to alter the player’s voice or breathing sound, the Pipe can also be used to create its own lighting, resulting in the “whole performance” Kreimer was after.

As the founder of SOMA Laboratory, Kreimer now plans to mass produce musical instruments of his own design — of which the Pipe is just one. The device consists of a handheld element and small communication box with left and right output jacks. It is available in black and white options and will be priced, he says, somewhere between 400-450 euros ($490-$550), plus postage. Final pricing will be announced at a later date when all the manufacturing processes are sorted out.

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A hero drone manages to rescue two teenage swimmers in choppy surf

We’re always eager to recognize the heroes who risk their lives to save others, but the hero in this story isn’t interested in our praise. Drones, after all, aren’t particularly moved by flattery or gratitude, but they are useful when it comes to saving swimmers in Australia. As originally reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, a drone played the role of levitating lifeguard and saved two swimmers who were struggling against heavy surf in New South Wales.

The dramatic rescue took place on Thursday, January 18,  and represents the first application of drone technology to protect swimmers. Drones were initially introduced to coastal lifeguards when the NSW government pledged $16 million to a shark-mitigation strategy. But clearly, the drones have additional uses as well.

The two distressed swimmers managed to get a distress signal to NSW lifeguards, and it just so happened the supervisor Jai Sheridan (the 2017 NSW Lifeguard of the Year) was controlling the drone. Sheridan responded immediately, flying the unmanned aerial vehicle to the swimmers’ location within minutes, and deployed help. The drone dropped a flotation device into the water, helping the teenage swimmers.

“The Little Ripper UAV certainly proved itself today, it is an amazingly efficient piece of lifesaving equipment and a delight to fly,” Sheridan told the Morning Herald. “I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes. On a normal day that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach the members of the public.”

In fact, reports suggest that the drone, in Sheridan’s expert hands, was able to complete the mission in just 70 seconds. A lifeguard, on the other hand, would likely require around six minutes to rescue swimmers in a similar situation.

The mission certainly serves as a proof point for the drone’s maker, Westpac Little Ripper. As the company’s CEO Eddie Bennet noted, the mission “clearly illustrates the benefit of this cutting-edge technology in such a time-critical emergency situation.” Just last month, the NSW government announced a $430,000 investment in drone technology as part of a trial on the north coast of the country. Now, it certainly seems as though that decision was a strategic one.

As Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW John Barilaro said, “It’s quite incredible to see that the NSW Government’s investment in this technology has already resulted in two people having their lives saved.”

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Looking for online privacy and security? Here are the best VPNs for Android

Maybe you want to hide your location to get U.S. Netflix in another country, or maybe you’re connecting to a public Wi-Fi network and you don’t want to expose any sensitive data, or perhaps you’re just concerned about being snooped on in general. The online world is rife with threats to your security and privacy, especially since Congress voted to quash regulations that would prevent broadband internet providers from selling your browsing history without your consent.

By using a VPN (virtual private network) service, you can ensure that all of your internet communication is encrypted and potentially protected from prying eyes. You can also use it to connect to servers in different countries and sometimes fool websites such as Netflix to get access to the best shows and movies. However, not all Android VPN apps are created equal. There are countless services on offer, so it can be tough to find the best VPNs for Android.

You should also consider what you’re signing up for. You’re placing a lot of trust in the VPN service you choose, and some of them have questionable policies when it comes to privacy. If the service is being offered for free, it’s important to stop and think about the business model. Are they selling your data, or exposing you to other threats? To give just a couple of examples, Hola was found to be selling users’ bandwidth, and VPN Defender is owned by analytics company App Annie.

It’s important to do a little homework on the service you choose, read up on the privacy policy, and decide what you’re comfortable with. All services on this list supports OpenVPN protocol, which is the most secure option on Android.

You may also want to check out the best Android security apps or read up on our Android security tips.

NordVPN

We’ve tried out a number of different VPN services, but our current favorite is NordVPN. It combines decent speeds and reasonable pricing with an easy-to-use interface that includes an automatic connection option. There are busy periods, especially on the U.S. servers, but it never fails to connect. We’ve found speeds to be reliable and consistently fast enough for full HD video streaming. In addition to Android, it works on Windows, MacOS, and iOS, and you can use the service simultaneously on up to six different devices. There are more than 2,800 servers spread across 59 countries.

NordVPN is one of the most well-respected VPNs for a number of reasons. The company’s no logging policy, military-grade encryption, and the fact that the service is based in Panama — away from U.S. or European monitoring — makes it a very popular VPN service. In its own words: “NordVPN never logs where you go on the internet. If anyone asks, the best we can do is shrug our shoulders, and we like it that way.” There’s also a kill switch, so your connection is automatically cut to prevent exposure if the VPN should fail.

The service costs $12 per month, but there are frequent discounted offers if you subscribe for a longer period. Right now, for example, you can get one year for $70 (around $5.75 per month), two years for $80 (about $3.30 per month), or three years for $100 ($2.75 per month).

Download now from:

Google Play

VyprVPN

Another fast and reliable service, VyprVPN is provided by Golden Frog, a company that has a solid track record when it comes to online privacy and security. It owns and runs its own networks independent of third parties, doesn’t share your data with anyone, and only keeps logs of IP addresses, connection times, and bytes used for 30 days. It offers 70 server locations spread across the globe, support for 256-bit encryption, and a proprietary technology called Chameleon, which masks the fact you are using a VPN service. Chameleon is ideal if you’re looking to stream content from another country. VyprVPN also has a kill switch feature.

The Android app is incredibly easy to use. You can just tap connect to find a local server, choose the fastest server, or browse the list if you want to specify a particular country. You can see basic info on your connection, check a speed graph, and see a connection log. The nice thing about the VyprVPN app is that you can also configure it to automatically connect based on your preferences — such as any time you join an untrustworthy network — which is perfect for public Wi-Fi protection. The service is based in Switzerland.

The standard account costs $10 per month or $60 for a year, and allows three simultaneous connections. We recommend going for the Premium account, which is $13 per month, or $80 annually. Doing so will grant you a few extra features and support for five simultaneous connections. You can test the service for yourself with the free 3-day trial.

Download now from:

Google Play

ExpressVPN

With ExpressVPN, you have a choice of nearly 100 different locations around the world. The service is also generally reliable and touts excellent 24/7 customer support, along with support for 256-bit encryption. The company doesn’t log traffic data or browsing activity, and the app is straightforward to use. It provides a list of viable locations to connect with, and it usually works pretty well, allowing you to connect within seconds. There’s also a home screen widget for quick connections, and you can have up to three connection simultaneously.

ExpressVPN allows split tunneling, so you can route some of your device traffic through the VPN, but let the rest access the internet directly, if you so desire. However, it lacks a kill switch feature. The service is based in the British Virgin Islands.

You can try ExpressVPN free for 7 days. After that, you’re looking at spending $13 per month, $60 for six months, or $100 for a year. The feature set is the same across the board, though, and each option comes with a 30-day, money-back guarantee.

Download now from:

Google Play

TunnelBear VPN

If you want something cute and stylish, then TunnelBear is for you. The USP here is simplicity in a friendly, bear-themed package. There is minimal logging, and TunnelBear promises to never track what you do online, to not log your IP, and to not share your data with any third party. It also supports 256-bit encryption, has servers in 20 countries, and offers fairly quick speeds.

The Android app is super-cute and easy to use, if a little light on data. You can see server locations on a map and tap to have your bear tunnel to them. There’s also a handy widget for the home screen. There is a kill switch feature, and TunnelBear also accepts Bitcoin. The service is based in Canada.

You can get 500MB of free data every month for a single device. The normal subscription costs $10 per month or $60 for the year, which gets you unlimited use on up to five devices simultaneously.

Download now from:

Google Play

F-Secure Freedome VPN

You’ll find a decent range of servers in Europe, North America, and Asia with Freedome, which currently covers more than 20 countries. Finnish provider F-Secure promises not to log your data, and allows you to create an account without registering. It doesn’t allow BitTorrent use in many countries, including the United States and United Kingdom.

The Android app is pretty stylish and couldn’t be simpler to use. Fire it up, and you’ll see a big button that you can tap to turn the service on and off. There are some stats beneath. You can change location, and that’s about it. There’s no kill switch function. F-Secure is also an antivirus provider, so it offers other apps and services to guard against viruses, malware, and dodgy websites.

You can try the app for free for five days. After that, you’re looking at spending $50 per year for three devices, $60 for five devices, or $80 for seven devices.

Download now from:

Google Play

Update: We shortened the list, updated screenshots and details, and picked an overall best VPN for Android to make your choice a little easier.

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What is Ripple?

Although bitcoin is still the king of the cryptocurrency hill, there are many pretenders to its throne, and some of them are quite different. One of the most intriguing in its diversion from several crypto-norms is Ripple, a much more centralized cryptocurrency in a very decentralized space.

What is Ripple? It’s still classed as a cryptocurrency, but the way it was founded and the way it operates are very different from some of the others out there. That’s why if you’re thinking of investing in Ripple, you need to do your research first and what better place to start, than right here.

Want to know what Ethereum is all about too? We have a guide for that as well.

Ripple explained

Ripple is the catchall name for the cryptocurrency platform, the transactional protocol for which is actually XRP, in the same fashion as Ethereum is the name for the platform that facilitates trades in Ether. Like other cryptocurrencies, Ripple is built atop the idea of a distributed ledger network which requires various parties to participate in validating transactions, rather than any singular centralized authority. That facilitates transactions all over the world, and transfer fees are far cheaper than the likes of bitcoin. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, XRP transfers are effectively immediate, requiring no typical confirmation time.

Ripple was originally founded by a single company, Ripple Labs, and continues to be backed by it, rather than the larger network of developers that continue bitcoin’s development. It also doesn’t have a fluctuating amount of its currency in existence. Where bitcoin has a continually growing pool with an eventual maximum, and Ethereum theoretically has no limit, Ripple was created with all of its 100 billion XRP tokens right out of the gate. That number is maintained with no mining and most of the tokens are owned and held by Ripple Labs itself — around 60 billion at the latest count.

Even at the recently reduced value of around a dollar per XRP, that means Ripple Labs is currently sitting on around $60 billion worth of the cryptocurrency (note: Ripple’s price crashed hard recently, and may be worth far less than $60 billion by time you read this). It holds 55 billion XRP in an escrow account, which allows it to sell up to a billion per month if it so chooses in order to fund new projects and acquisitions. Selling such an amount would likely have a drastic effect on the cryptocurrency’s value, and isn’t something Ripple Labs plans to do anytime soon.

In actuality, Ripple Labs is looking to leverage the technology behind XRP to allow for faster banking transactions around the world. While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are built on the idea of separating financial transactions from the financial organizations of traditional currencies, Ripple is almost the opposite in every sense.

Backed by banks

You may have heard a lot of cryptocurrency investors and financial commentators discussing the idea of regulation. While we don’t think that’s of any meaningful concern, many worry about banks cracking down on bitcoin and the like. That’s even less likely to happen with Ripple, as it’s backed by some of the world’s major financial institutions. Santander, UBS, American Express, RBC, Westpac, and more, all have a hand in its operation and proliferation.They can even charge their own specified fees for completing transactions. That control is the biggest differentiating factor for Ripple.

In many ways, this isn’t wholly surprising, as blockchain technology holds a vast number of benefits for companies that are able to employ it effectively. However, backing a cryptocurrency like Ripple is certainly an outlier and is something that needs to be understood by potential buyers and sellers, because it gives those financial institutions a much greater level of control over Ripple than most other cryptocurrencies out there.

Where bitcoin, Ethereum, and similar are entirely decentralized, backed by thousands if not millions of global miners, meaning that nobody has any real control over the network, Ripple’s nodes are handled by these financial institutions and Ripple Labs itself. Those independent servers don’t have to provide proof-of-work calculations like bitcoin, the nodes simply validate transactions themselves — much like traditional banks do.

When that’s combined with the fact that no new XRP are being created, and that the existing numbers’ circulation is strictly controlled, it leads many to have concerns about Ripple’s future.

Cold snap

All of that control of the Ripple network that’s held by particular entities means that they have some abilities which are unique to this sort of cryptocurrency. The one that has detractors concerned the most is the “freeze.”

“The XRP Ledger gives addresses the ability to freeze non-XRP balances, which can be useful to meet regulatory requirements, or while investigating suspicious activity,” the Ripple guide to the feature reads. While that is something that is commonplace in traditional banking, many would argue it is the complete opposite of the true purpose of cryptocurrencies: to remove that regulation and oversight.

Effectively, Ripple nodes can severely limit XRP wallets on an individual basis, or all wallets associated with a particular node. This was demonstrated in 2015, when original Ripple Labs founder Jed McCaleb attempted to sell more than a million dollars worth of Ripple. Ripple Labs purportedly persuaded a Ripple node, Bitstamp, to reverse the transaction.

Although there are elements to the story which suggest McCaleb breached a contract with the sale, the fact that the freeze was possible at all, with centralized authorities controlling the currency’s owner’s ability to transact with it as he wishes, has others concerned for Ripple’s future. If the founding company, exchanges, and banks can control XRP to that extent, is it worth trading in Ripple at all?

At the very least, it’s important to be aware that where other cryptocurrencies give the owners near-complete control over their coins — as long as you use the right wallet-type — Ripple has much greater oversight and middle-man control.

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You can use Google’s new Fuchsia operating system on the Pixelbook

Google has developed its new operating system, codenamed Fuchsia, for well over a year. Up until now, it’s been difficult to actually run the experimental project to get a sneak peek, but the recent addition of Pixelbook support has offered up a new way to take it for a test drive.

Beyond a lock screen and login form that will look relatively familiar to anyone who has used Google’s services, there are actually quite a few working components in the current version of Fuchsia, according to Ars Technica.

The Google bar at the bottom of the user interface is said to work in a limited capacity, although it’s rife with placeholders for the time being. It can search through local files and will offer a web launcher if you type in a URL.

The web browser is unfinished and won’t render many sites, although it’s, of course, able to display the Google homepage with no issues. There are a few other apps that work but they are said to be quite ugly and, in some cases, barely functional. Included are a video player that doesn’t play video (likely due to the lack of an internet connection), a music player that crashed, a straightforward file manager, an early iteration of a chat app, and some graphical demos.

While it’s rather impressive to see Fuchsia running on Pixelbook hardware at all, it’s clear that the laptop isn’t quite up to the task. Crashes are apparently frequent and the device is said to run very hot, even when something as simple as the lock screen is being displayed.

Google is remaining tight-lipped when it comes to Fuchsia and has yet to acknowledge its existence officially, so it’s difficult to get a read on its long-term plans for the project. Given that a big focus seems to be delivering a consistent user experience across computers and mobile devices, we can perhaps expect to see it factor into the company’s future hardware strategy.

Anyone brave enough to dive into the esoteric Fuchsia installation process can grab the source code here, but be warned: It’s not for the faint of heart.

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Managing Type 2 diabetes gets easier thanks to UnitedHealthcare and Dexcom

A few weeks after investing in a blood sugar tracking startup, Fitbit is doubling down on its commitment to helping those with diabetes. At CES 2018, health insurance provider UnitedHealthcare and continuous glucose monitoring company Dexcom announced a new pilot program centered around wearable tech provided by Fitbit to help those with Type 2 diabetes better address their health in real time.

Under the new pilot, eligible UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plan participants will be able to leverage both a Fitbit (either an Ionic or Charge 2 device) as well as the Dexcom Mobile Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) System to keep tabs on their glucose levels throughout the day, helping them better match actions with outcomes. The CGM system is comprised of a sensor, generally worn on the abdomen, that detects glucose levels immediately beneath the skin. A companion transmitter sends this information to a smartphone, which interprets and displays the data every five minutes.

This constant monitoring might be able to help patients determine what behaviors positively or negatively affect their glucose levels, and take action accordingly. And thanks to the personalized coaching and activity monitoring provided by the Fitbit device, users should be able to turn insights into action.

As the medical industry turns increasingly to wearable devices and new technology, UnitedHealthcare is looking to stay on trend. As such, the company says its new focus is on “integrating human support with data from real-time sources, such as digital health technology, and historical sources, like claims data, to help improve and personalize how people navigate the health care system.” The pilot with DexCom and Fitbit seeks to empower patients to manage their own glucose levels, thereby reducing the amount of medication they require and improving their own confidence in going about their everyday lives.

This isn’t the first time that Fitbit has worked alongside DexCom or UnitedHealthcare. Last fall, the two companies collaborated to bring DexCom CGM data to the Fitbit Ionic, and last January, Fitbit’s Charge 2 became the first buy-up device option added to the UHC Motion program, an employer-sponsored wearable device program that encourages individuals to walk more frequently. Since the beginning of that program, participants have collectively walked more than 130 billion steps.

Update: Added information about Fitbit giveaway with UnitedHealthcare’s pilot program.

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Frederique Constant could be the next classic watchmaker to launch a smartwatch

Classic watchmakers have slowly but surely been getting into the smartwatch game over the past few years — with some releasing classic-looking hybrid devices and others favoring fully fledged touchscreen-controlled smartwatches. Now, it seems like another luxury watchmaker could be preparing to get into the game — Frederique Constant.

The company has been sending out cryptic emails asking people if they’re ready for the “3.0 Watch Generation.” What does that mean? Absolutely no idea, but the graphic below makes it seems like it’ll be a pretty futuristic offering. Whatever is in the works, it will be unveiled in New York City on February 21.

There are a lot of possibilities here. It’s possible that the company will fully embrace the smartwatch and show off a device with fitness tracking and notification support. If we had to bet, however, we think whatever pops up will be a little more hybrid, blending a classic watch with smart features — again, like some fitness tracking.

As mentioned, Frederique Constant isn’t the only classic watch company to begin embracing smart features. Bulgari has its Diagono Magnesium, which boasts a typical watch design with an NFC chip. That means it can be used for things like mobile payments, which can be pretty handy. The Alpina Horological is another example — it offers a Bluetooth chip for syncing with a phone, and it can track things like activity, sleep, and more.

It makes sense that luxury watchmakers would be entering the smartwatch game. Until only a few years ago, if you wanted a decent watch, you bought a watch from a watchmaker. Then Apple launched the Apple Watch. While there were certainly smartwatches before then, the Apple Watch really brought the idea of a smartwatch into consumer consciousness and quickly made Apple the world’s biggest watchmaker. That really forced traditional watchmakers to take notice.

All this to say that it will be very interesting to see what Frederique Constant unveils on February 21, and whether or not it will be a truly smart watch, or a more hybrid approach to the smartwatch category.

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Running out of space on your Chromebook? Try these tips

16GB isn’t a lot of space. You might need a way to add more.

While Chromebooks are mostly cloud-centric machines, there are still quite a few offline packaged apps available. Sometimes, when you have a lot of those installed alongside media like music, video, and pictures, there’s not much room left. Add in Google Drive syncing, and running out of space is a real possibility — especially on the 16GB storage models.

There are a few things you can do to help if you ever hit the storage wall. Let’s have a look at some of them!

Adding an SD card or USB thumb drive is an easy option

This one is simple. Your Chromebook likely has an SD card reader on the side, and if you add a card to it, all the space on the card is available to the operating system for storage. The same goes for a USB thumb drive.

There are a couple issues to be aware of here. The first is that you might not want half of an SD card or a USB thumb drive hanging off the side of your Chromebook where it can get broken. There’s an easy solution — use half-height drives or cards. Newer Chromebooks may only have USB-C ports, with no option for an SD card or USB-A port without an adapter. Monoprice makes an excellent micro-SD adapter that can connect over either USB-A or USB-C, so feel free to use those back and forth with your other computers.

• Transcend JetDrive half-height card from Amazon
• SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Low-Profile Flash Drive from Amazon
• Monoprice Dual Mode USB-C MicroSD reader

Your Chromebook can read and write to SD cards or USB drives formatted as FAT32, vFAT and exFAT. Your Chromebook can format or reformat an SD card, but it will only do it using the FAT32 file system. There is a 4GB file size and 8TB partition size limit using FAT32, so if you need to read and write files (like movies) bigger than 4GB it’s best to format the card on another machine. You can do that on a demo computer at Best Buy if you need to.

Lastly, tinkerers might want to use an ext file system on their portable drives. Besides issues with file permissions, you might run into, remember that journalizing may cause flash storage to wear out fast.

A less portable solution — A USB hard drive

Like portable flash storage, your Chromebook can use a USB hard drive for a lot more storage at the cost of portability. Most any USB hard drive will work, so look for the fastest one (USB 3) you can afford, even if your Chromebook doesn’t have USB 3 ports — your next one will.

Your Chromebook can access files on a USB hard drive using these file systems:

• FAT (FAT16, FAT32, exFAT)
• HFS+ (read-only on journaled HFS+)
• ISO9660 (read-only)
• MTP
• NTFS
• UDF (read-only)

You’ll not be able to easily format a USB drive in Chrome OS, so you’ll need to do that on another computer. Also note that there is no defragmenter in Chrome OS, so if the drive gets “clogged” up you’ll need to do that on another computer, too.

Protip: Your Chromebook can also read files (like media in any of these formats: 3gp, .avi, .mov, .mp4, .m4v, .m4a, .mp3, .mkv, .ogv, .ogm, .ogg, .oga, .webm, .wav ) from a USB CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, so it might be worth burning your videos and music to a disc if you have room to tote a USB drive around.

Use a second Google Drive account

And don’t sync it offline with your Chromebook.

It’s easy to switch users on Chrome OS, and downloading a file to a removable drive through the file manager means it can be available for all users. Every account gets 15GB of free Google Drive storage, and it will show in the file manager where you can easily access any of it.

Of course, you can also choose to not sync your Google Drive files offline to save even more space from the Google Drive app settings.

More: How to choose what you sync on Chrome across devices

You might be able to put a bigger drive in your Chromebook

This is a little more extreme than any of the other options, and most Chromebooks don’t support it because the internal storage is soldered directly to the board.

Some notable models that can be upgraded with a bigger storage drive include the Acer C710, the Acer C720, the HP Chromebook 14, The Samsung Series 5 (and Series 5 550) and the Cr-48.

It’s easy to do on some models like the Acers or the Samsungs, and very difficult to do on the HP 14 — but it can be done.

You also might need a specific drive like an M.2/NGFF SSD and it’s best to stay away from drives bigger than 128GB. We swapped out the SSD on a trusty C720 if you want to see what you might be up against.

How to upgrade the SSD in your Acer C720 Chromebook

You don’t need every app in the Play Store

If you have a Chromebook that can use the Google Play Store to run Android apps, it’s tempting to make a visit and go on a download spree. It’s not hard to fill up all the storage inside your Chromebook this way.

Take some time and do a self-audit here. What apps do you need, what apps do you really want and what apps will you never use? Ask yourself these questions and uninstall everything else. Your hard drive will thank you and you’ll have room to try new apps as they come out.

Have reasonable expectations

When you buy a $200 laptop that’s built to be lean and speedy, you shouldn’t expect a 500GB spinning disk drive under the hood. You wouldn’t be happy with the performance even if you did. That’s just not how Chromebooks are designed, and even the most expensive models only come with a 64GB SSD installed.

With tempered and well thought out expectations and these few tips, you should be able to manage all of your storage needs.

Updated January 2018: This article was updated to remove references to old models and address Android apps as a storage issue.

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Android Wear 2.8 adds system-wide black theme

Gray is so 2017.

For those of you that continue to march on and use Android Wear, a new 2.8 update should be arriving on your wrists soon. When it does, you’ll likely notice that things look a bit darker. According to a thread on Reddit, updating to Android Wear 2.8 gets rid of Android Wear’s system-wide gray background and replaces it with a black one.

As you can see in the pictures below, this black color is found on the quick settings page, the app drawer, notification shade, etc. I personally never had any issues with the old gray theme, but the new black coat of paint looks incredibly sleek.

Users have reported getting the new look on the Huawei Watch 2 and original Huawei Watch, but it’s unclear at this time if the black theme is only available for watches with an AMOLED display.

Also, as Droid Life points out, the naming for the software doesn’t make a lot of sense. The Android Wear app on your phone will be updated from 2.7.0.177669439 to 2.7.0.180439970, but the actual software on your Android Wear watch will change to 2.8.0.181612071.

If you’re still rocking an Android Wear watch, have you gotten this update yet? Drop a comment down below and let us know!

TAG Heuer announces Connected Modular 41 smartwatch, starts at $1200

Best Place to Buy your PlayStation Aim Controller

Taking PlayStation VR to the next level

With games like Bravo Team and Farpoint being released for the PlayStation VR, the need for an Aim Controller gets that much harder to silence as the days go on. Well, no worries, I’ve done the work of comparing prices and site reviews for you! This way you know you’re not only getting the best deals, but they’re also from the best sites. Check out below to see the buying options for your new PlayStation Gear!

Not playing a PSVR and simply looking for a new Aim Controller to play your Move games? Options for that are below as well!

• PlayStation VR bundle
• Aim controller bundle
• Buying just the controller
• Buying used controllers

• PlayStation Aim Controllers for the Move

PlayStation VR bundle

If you haven’t bought a PSVR system yet but you already know you’re going to want the coolest games that are compatible with the Aim Controller you might as well go for the full bundle. NewEgg offers a stellar deal at $799.99 for you to get everything you’ll need for the PSVR and even a game to start you off!

See at NewEgg

Aim controller bundle

Maybe you already have the PSVR but are still interested in a bundle that comes with a game. Well, for $79.99 NewEgg bring you that deal, complete with the Aim Controller and Farpoint VR. Considering the Aim Controller itself goes for about $60-70 dollars I’d say this deal is pretty stellar.

See at NewEgg

Buying options for just the controller

If you’ve already got your games and you’re just looking for the controller, here are the buying options. As it stands, Best Buy offers the best deal at $59.99, where Walmart sells theirs for $71.99.

If you hate ordering online or live close to a Walmart, fret not. They do have their price match options, meaning they can match the price at Best Buy to meet your convenience. Both are listed below for you to make the decision!

See at Walmart

See at Best Buy

Buying used controllers

As it stands, this options is not worth it. The prices on the most common sites for buying used tech are almost the same as the price of buying it new. When you add the risk of possible complications it makes it hard to be worth it. I just can’t see the (roughly) 15 dollars you’re going to save being worth the risk.

But, here’s a few notes if you choose to go that route. When buying used technology please always keep in mind and be prepared for a scam. Request videos of the devices working and inquire about up-to-date images and not just stock photos. Most importantly, always meet in a public place if buying anything offline where you have to meet in person for delivery.

Aim Controllers for your PlayStation Move

U.S Army Elite Force Assault Rifle Controller For PlayStation 3 & Move

Walmart offers a nifty camo gun for you to feel like a right and proper soldier while playing games on your PlayStation Move. For $22.99 you can get this adorable army gun for your gaming experience. Not compatible with PSVR

See at Walmart

Move Perfect Aim Pistol

On Amazon, you can find a one-handed PlayStation Move gun. This small, compact gun is a little fragile so certainly not recommended if it’s going to be used in a house with small children (or reckless adults). Not compatible with PSVR

See on Amazon

How about you?

Where did you buy your PlayStation Aim Controller? Did you find a better deal? Tell us in the comments below!

PlayStation 4

• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
• PlayStation VR Review
• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

Amazon