NASA’s new X-ray navigation could guide robots through deep space

NASA wants to use X-ray navigation to guide robotic ships through outer space. In a first, the agency demonstrated its breakthrough technology in November of last year, paving the way for autonomous spacecraft in deep space.

“This demonstration is a breakthrough for future deep space exploration,” said Jason Mitchell, a NASA aerospace technologist working on the project. “As the first to demonstrate X-ray navigation fully autonomously and in real-time in space, we are now leading the way.”

In the experiment testing the system, known as Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT), Mitchell and his team used millisecond pulsars to pinpoint an object traveling through space at thousands of miles per hour. That’s comparable to how GPS uses its 24 satellites to give positioning and navigation information to people on Earth.

Demonstration of the SEXTANT technology was conducted using 52 X-ray telescopes and X-ray radiation detectors on NASA’s Neutron-star Interior Composition Explore (NICER), a washing machine-sized spacecraft that the agency launched in June 2017 to study neutron stars. NICER has since attached an X-ray timing instrument to the International Space Station, from where the study is being conducted.

“We’re doing very cool science and using the space station as a platform to execute that science, which in turn enables X-ray navigation,” said Keith Gendreau, the principal investigator for NICER. “The technology will help humanity navigate and explore the galaxy.”

The pulsars are so stable and precise that their arrival from one point to another can be predicted to microsecond years into the future. The goal of the experiment was to demonstrate that the system could locate NICER within a 10-mile radius as the space station orbited Earth at over 17,500 mph. After eight hours, the SEXTANT system could locate NICER within the target range, and reached an accuracy of three miles for much of the study.

The SEXTANT technology will allow spacecraft to determine their locations autonomously, without relying on Earth-based global navigation networks, since pulsars are accessible from low-Earth to deep space. However, the navigation system still likely has a few years in development before it can be practically applied to deep space travel.

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‘You gotta be patient.’ Why HTC keeps pushing VR forward, and what’s next

The Vive Pro was announced just yesterday here at CES 2018, bringing higher resolution and a revamped design. We already went hands-on with it — and even though it’s an iterative update, it brings a few highly-desired specs to the table that enthusiasts should love.

We got a chance to sit down with Dan O’Brien, the General Manger of Vive, to talk Vive Pro, the future of Vive Focus, and how close VR is from reaching mass adoption.

Digital Trends: At the rest of CES, the trend seems to be more shifted toward mainstream products, designed for first-time VR users. Why did HTC decide now to instead go in the opposite direction?

Dan O’Brien: Two reasons: One, our existing product, which is going to stay in market through 2018. It’s the best premium VR, consumer product. We’ve done the right things in that space of improving it, making it lighter, making the cables better, and pricing it down a bit. But it was really time for premium VR to step up another layer. It was time for us to keep moving innovation and what you can do in VR. Reading text in VR is really important. We can make the changes in visual quality. We can make the changes in audio quality. We can make the changes for the ergonomics and overall comfort and fit. Those are things that we knew we could do really, really well — and it was the time to do it.

A lot of them were asking us for a 50 percent jump in resolution, we gave them 78 percent.

We’ve also been listening since year one at launch of the first product, to the professional market. Whether that’s automotive or medical — they all needed higher resolution. A lot of them were asking us for a 50 percent jump in resolution, we gave them 78 percent. It’s really important for medical training use cases, automotive use cases, design use cases, and gaming use cases for richer environments. It’s something we could do and to differentiate and move premium VR forward and bring some innovation there. It’s not just always about costing things down and trying to open the market that way. We have a very large, professional enterprise market that wanted us to bring more innovation for them. They also wanted larger tracking area — all of them are asking for that.

In the SimforHealth application, you have an ultrasound in your left hand, a stint in your right hand, and you’re looking at a monitor on your right to look at what your hands on doing. That’s how doctors work in an operating room. You need a higher resolution to do that.

There have been a number of reports about the headphones on the Vive Pro. Are they detachable or removable?

You can remove them. We put them on there with intention for people to use those headphones. Users will be able to remove them, but it’s not a snap off, simple thing — you’ll actually have to unscrew it and take it off. But we did design it so that you could remove it. There’s instructions in the box that’ll tell people how to do it.

We put really premium headphones on the Vive Pro.

A lot of people gave us challenging feedback on why we didn’t launch the current Vive with the audio head-strap as an accessory. It’s actually because we did a lot of studies and we built smartphones — we know what an early adopter is like. When we were thinking about that early gamer — and we knew they had their headphones they were likely going to want to use and we didn’t want to control that for them. That was actually very specific on the original product.

But to be honest with you, we put really premium headphones on the Vive Pro with in-line amplifiers, volume controls, and a mute button. We really stepped it up for that audio experience, and we think that people are really going to enjoy using them.

The Vive Focus was launched in China earlier this year. Why has that been left only to that region and not brought to the US yet?

We decided as a company to bring that product into the China market first. It’s a whole new product. It was like introducing the Vive for the first time. We learned a lot about developer needs, consumer needs, channel needs — and we made an active decision as a company to launch in the China market. We wanted to learn — from developer success, store success, usage, and content in that market — and then we’ll consider how we bring all-in-ones to Western markets.

So it sounds like that’s not the end of that?

No, not at all. But nothing new to announce.

All these mobile and stand-alone headsets on the market are all wireless. Is the wireless adapter a way to solve that problem for premium headsets?

We surveyed prospective buyers, intenders, and current users. It’s a top-three purchase decision. People want the tether gone. They want to have a wireless solution, whether it’s at premium or lower, they don’t want to have to deal with the tether.

People want the tether gone. They want to have a wireless solution.

Arcades don’t want to have to deal with the tether. Professional customers that want to do multi-user experiences in an office environment — they don’t want to deal with the tether. It’s one of the top reasons people may not actually have gone into premium VR yet. We felt very strongly that this was something else we could solve. We worked with Intel on the WiGig 60Ghz band for this solution. I run around in DoomVR, and I can’t tell the difference between my wired and wireless experience.

Is there a reason why it’s an adapter instead of something that was built-in?

One, you’re bringing yourself additional cost. You want to be able to give people the option to get into the optimal experience that you intended to provide them. You know you can 100% do that with the tether. Having the wireless option there for them whether they want that or not is great, but always forcing people to have it is maybe not the best way to go to market initially. But maybe in the future. You can always make it a soft-bundle.

Is there anything new to say about the new controllers? What about the knuckle controller prototype?

The new Wands are updated with new sensor and new color — same form factor.

When the knuckle controllers were introduced — all of that’s been done for feedback sessions to learn. Valve gave out a ton of controllers to the developer community and has been taking feedback. This is the best way to redesign and rebuild new input methods for consumers and developers. We put out those prototypes and we’ve been listening to developers and their feedback on this solution that they would like to develop for.

We have nothing to report on about the knuckle controllers, but we learned a lot from developers.

What needs to happen to push VR adoption over the edge to make it a mainstream thing? Is it a ‘build it and they will come’ scenario?

You gotta be patient. You can’t expect it to be an overnight success. We were the originals of making Windows Mobile smartphones. We were the first to make an Android smartphone. We saw the progression of when it started to cross the chasm and get into mass adoption. Those are all things we’ve gone through before. We feel like we are going in the right direction.

Editors’ Recommendations

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The big PC trends from CES: Intel befriends AMD, monitors get massive, and more

While great laptops and 2-in-1s come out every year, we don’t see significant innovation taking place in computing on an annual basis. But this year at CES, we saw some upending of the standard quo on a number of levels.

The trends we saw from the show floor have us both curious and excited about the future of computing. Some will undoubtedly end up in dead ends — and others will probably become the new status quo in just a few years.

Intel and AMD call a truce

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

We’ve been talking about the unprecedented partnership between Intel and AMD since it was announced toward the end of 2017. It marks a fairly large departure from the companies’ storied rivalry — and introduces some much-needed competition to the discrete GPU market. In particular, these chips are new Intel H-series 8th-gen CPUs, paired with a Radeon RX Vega M graphics chip from AMD.

We saw two products at the show with the new components: The Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 and the HP Spectre x360 15. Both are thin 2-in-1s, meaning they fold around 360 degrees to be used as tablets. The Vega graphics chip means we should be able to expect some decent gaming performance from both of these computers, as well as enough power to support virtual reality. We haven’t been able to benchmark these machines yet, but Intel is promising that performance rivals what you get from an Nvidia GTX 1050 or GTX 1060, depending on the chip you have.

We also got to see the chip in action in the Intel’s Hades Canyon NUC (Next Unit of Computing). These aren’t mainstream devices like the others, but they’re a new breed of PCs that are a dream come true for DIYers. These small computers can be customized and powered up — and now feature a capable graphics cards to boot.

High-resolution VR headsets

Luke Larsen/Digital Trends

We weren’t expecting it, but HTC gave us a surprise with the introduction of the Vive Pro at its press conference on Tuesday. The new headset is a redesign of the original Vive, with upgraded resolution (2,880 x 1,600 ) and a redesigned head-strap. The result is a 78 percent increase in resolution, making everything much crisper and text easier to read. The difference really was noticeable.

We also got to try out the Pimax 8K VR headset, which comes from a small company that made its splash through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter last year. The new iteration of the headset includes two 3,840 x 2,160 LCD displays. You’ll notice right away that even though it’s not technically 8K, it’s still a significant jump in resolution from even the Vive Pro. Even more importantly, the headset has a super-wide 200 degree FOV (field of view) over the 110 degree perspective of the Vive Pro. More than the resolution, the larger FOV had a huge impact on the overall feeling of immersion.

Just when it felt like premium VR headsets were taking backseat to the more accessible ones, these two companies pushed the envelope, proving that things like increased resolution and FOV are important in the overall experience of VR.

Qualcomm’s 2-in-1 laptops

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

You might have a bad taste in your mouth when it comes to ARM-based 2-in-1s. But recently, the future has become a little brighter for affordable, long-lasting, PCs. We now have three 2-in-1s that use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 as its CPU — that’s right, a smartphone chip powering a Windows 10 PC. We got try the three options out there: The more affordable Asus NovaGo and Lenovo Miix 630 — and the sleek HP Envy X2.

Not only do these machines all claim at least 20 hours of battery life, you also get an additional 20 hours of standby and built-in 4G LTE. The idea is to make 2-in-1s that feel more like smartphones and less like traditional laptops. There’s potential for this innovation to completely change how we use 2-in-1s — and the desire to own one.

So are Snapdragon-powered 2-in-1s the future of computing? Maybe, but there devil is in the details. We still don’t know how much the Envy X2 will cost (and it’s our favorite, so far), nor do we know how carriers will treat these devices, which could really put a damper on the connectivity. We might not all be using PCs by Qualcomm in five years, but we’d be surprised if built-in LTE didn’t become standard by then.

Big Format Gaming Displays make their debut

While OLED monitors were disappointedly absent once again, a different kind of monitor reared its head that could have a huge impact on the future of gaming displays. The BFGD (Big Format Gaming Display) from Nvidia feels like the ultimate gaming monitor — or is it a TV? It comes in at 65 inches, has a true 120Hz refresh rate, supports HDR and G-Sync, and comes in at a 4K resolution. The monitor’s LED display will burn holes in your eyes with its 1,000 nits of brightness, which is completely unheard of in a monitor, at any size.

While it looks like a TV in terms of its shape and size, the BFGD doesn’t have a built-in TV tuner — this thing is the cord-cutting, gaming monitor of the future. It even has an Nvidia Shield built right in, making in that much easier to access 4K HDR streaming content, voice assistant, and other Android TV features.

We’re expecting to see BFGDs from Acer, Asus, and HP, so it’s a trend we’ll be following well into the future. Don’t hope for them to replace conventional TVs or gaming monitors anytime soon, but in a few years, who knows?

The future of computer processing gets real

CPUs and GPUs are becoming essential to new areas. One of the clearest examples is autonomous vehicles, which demands a mind-boggling amount of processing power to function. We saw the debut of an incredible solution at CES this year in the form Xavier, a new chip by Nvidia specifically for self-driving cars. We were so impressed with potential of Xavier that we awarded it the overall Top Tech winner of the show.

But just as Nvidia is attempting to become the Intel of autonomous cars, Intel itself had its own forward-looking processors to talk about. At its keynote presentation, the focus was all about data — what we do with it, and how we’ll process it in the future. In particular, Intel talked about two experimental methods of processing that it’s developing: quantum chips and neuromorphic computing. While the latter feels a bit more nebulous, the former was made tangible with Intel’s 49-qubit superconducting quantum chip, dubbed “Tangle Lake.” Intel debuted at its show-floor booth for the first time, insisting that as the amount of data that’s collected exponentially increases, so will the capability of our chips.

Going even further in the world of quantum computing, IBM had its own 50-qubit quantum computer on display at CES. The computer itself requires 105 square feet when properly running and has to be protected from any kind of thermal, electrical, or magnetic noise. What IBM actually had on display was a quantum computer I/O subsystem — which just happened to be one of the coolest-looking thing at CES. Thanks to machine learning and AI, we’re on the cusp of a new revolution in processing — and this is just the beginning.

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Google removes 60 apps from Play Store due to reports of malware

Google has removed 60 games from the Play Store after security firm Checkpoint discovered a bug that displayed ads for porn within the games. Many of the games were aimed at young children.

Checkpoint identified three main ways in which this malware, named Adult Swine, could cause trouble for users. The first is in the nature of the ads themselves. These ads are often pornographic in nature, which many would find inappropriate in any game, let alone those aimed at children. The ads come from the pages of mainstream ad providers that forbid their content from being used in this manner. The second source of ads is the malware’s own ad libraries, which are where the porn ads come from.

Finding ads for porn in children’s games would be bad enough, but there are bigger problems with Adult Swine than that. One such problem is the practice of using deceptive ads in order to trick users. Users will get a pop-up saying that their device has been infected with a virus. Upon clicking the prompt, they will be taken to an app in the Play Store. The apps themselves are not anti-virus software, and may even be harmful in and of themselves.

The final, and perhaps most dangerous feature of Adult Swine, are the premium service pop-ups. Users will be prompted that they will win a free iPhone or other such device if they can answer four questions. After answering those questions, the users will be asked to enter their phone number. Upon doing so, they will be registered and charged for a premium service that they did not want or need.

Adult Swine isn’t particularly new or clever, and most adults will likely see right through it. Young children, on the other hand, may be more trusting and thus unwittingly expose themselves or their parents’ personal information to risk.

Once Checkpoint reported Adult Swine to Google, the company removed the affected games from the Play Store. We recently reported on Google’s efforts to keep the Play Store clear of malware, but despite this, some do still slip through the cracks.

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Hawaii sends false incoming missile warning via mobile emergency alert

Sent in error this morning, the Hawaii Emergency Management agency issued a message around 8 a.m. local time that warned residents that a missile attack was imminent. Specifically, the message read “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”

As posted on social media, this alert message sent families scrambling to find shelter and overloaded cell phone networks as people attempted to find out more information about the attack. The Hawaii Emergency Management’s website crashed shortly after the message was sent, so political leaders in Hawaii attempted to use Twitter and other social platforms to inform the public that the alert was false.

This was my phone when I woke up just now. I’m in Honolulu, #Hawaii and my family is on the North Shore. They were hiding in the garage. My mom and sister were crying. It was a false alarm, but betting a lot of people are shaken. @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/m6EKxH3QqQ

— Sara Donchey (@KPRC2Sara) January 13, 2018

“It’s totally unacceptable,” U.S. Senator Brian Schatz said. “There was anxiety across the state and it was terrifying. There was a lot of unnecessary pain and anxiety. It’s important to have accountability at the state level and the emergency management level in terms of what exactly what went wrong.” Schatz also indicated that the alert was due to human error.

US Pacific Command spokesperson Commander David Benham also released a statement which read “SPACOM has detected no ballistic missile threat to Hawaii. Earlier message was sent in error. State of Hawaii will send out a correction message as soon as possible.” Due to rising tensions between the United States and North Korea, this unfortunate error was likely taken very seriously by Hawaii residents.

AGAIN FALSE ALARM. What happened today is totally inexcusable. The whole state was terrified. There needs to be tough and quick accountability and a fixed process.

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) January 13, 2018

Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) is a public safety system that lets the government geographically-target text messages to wireless devices. Only three types of alerts are allowed: alerts issued by the President, alerts involving imminent threats to safety or life, and amber alerts. These alerts often come with a specific phone vibration or loud noise to alert the user. Beyond the mobile alerts, the message played on televisions around the state, basically overriding the audio of the current channel.

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Water is not only available on Mars, it’s easily accessible, NASA finds

There is water on Mars, and it’s easily accessible. Pack your bags, friends, because we’re headed to a new planet.

Not really, of course, but the discovery does suggest that future missions to the Red Planet would be able to attain drinking water and make rocket fuel, both of which would be crucial to their success. The discovery was made using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and involves “eight sites where thick deposits of ice beneath Mars’ surface are exposed in faces of eroding slopes,” according to a NASA news release.

The ice deposits could help scientists glean more information about underground ice sheets in the middle latitudes of Mars, which had previously gone undetected. Researchers believe that the ice initially took the form of snow many, many years ago. Now, however, it remains as “relatively pure water ice” though it is “capped by a layer one to two yards thick of ice-cemented rock and dust.”

The findings were reported this week in the journal Science. The study’s lead author, Colin Dundas of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Science Center, noted, “There is shallow ground ice under roughly a third of the Martian surface, which records the recent history of Mars. What we’ve seen here are cross-sections through the ice that give us a 3-D view with more detail than ever before.”

And not only are we seeing the ice in more detail, but we’re also seeing just how available it would be to both robotic and manned missions. “Astronauts could essentially just go there with a bucket and a shovel and get all the water they need,” said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, the report’s co-author.

But aside from its importance as a resource, the ice also provides scientists with clues about long-term climate patterns on Mars. “If you had a mission at one of these sites, sampling the layers going down the scarp, you could get a detailed climate history of Mars,” said MRO Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “It’s part of the whole story of what happens to water on Mars over time: Where does it go? When does ice accumulate? When does it recede?”

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Kasotsuka Shojo is the world’s first cryptocurrency-themed pop group

Are you a fan of cryptocurrency and J-pop? Okay we admittedly don’t know what the crossover appeal is between those two, but one of Japan’s latest all-girl pop groups is betting that there is more than we think. Quartz Media has reported that Japan’s Kasotsuka Shojo is the world’s first cryptocurrency-themed pop group.

The band’s name translates to “Virtual Currency Girls” and is the creation of Japanese entertainment company Cinderella Academy. The company manages several other popular brands and launched Kasotsuka Shojo as a way to educate people about cryptocurrency. Each of the group’s members represents different cryptocurrencies such as XEM, BCH, MONA, BTC, ADA, ETH, NEO, and XRP.

“We want to promote the idea through entertainment that virtual currencies are not just a tool for speculation but are a wonderful technology that will shape the future,” said Rara Naruse.

【仮想通貨少女】仮想通貨をテーマにしたアイドルユニットお披露目ライブレポ！https://t.co/E3sD8u0LFs仮想通貨をテーマにしたアイドルユニット「仮想通貨少女」は、2018年1月12日に東京 神田 宮地楽器 ZippalHallにて「仮想通貨少女・お披露目ライブ」を開催。#仮想通貨少女 pic.twitter.com/REZygRItN8

— bitpress（ビットプレス） (@bitpress) January 13, 2018

The group’s first concert was held on Friday, January 12. Fittingly, tickets for that first concert were only purchasable with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or XRP. It is unknown whether future concerts will follow the same payment model or accept the Yen or other currencies.

The band’s first song, entitled The Moon and Virtual Currencies and Me, appears to be based on recent news stories regarding various governments imposing stricter regulations on cryptocurrencies. The song also implores listeners to practice cyber-security and staying vigilant regarding scams. However you get your information, it’s important to stay informed when the volatility and level of risk are so high.

The combination of cryptocurrency and pop music may seem like an odd one for some people. However, if any country can pull it off, it is Japan. Bitcoin is recognized as legal tender in the country. At one point, the island nation was the world’s leader in the trade of digital currencies, which remain popular throughout the country.

Of course, if you prefer to get your cryptocurrency news the old fashioned way, we’ve got you covered. To get an understanding of the technology which underlies and makes cryptocurrencies possible, check out our guide to blockchains. For general information on bitcoin, XRP, and other various cryptocurrencies, check out our primer.

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These are the Android Central team’s favorite things from CES 2018!

With so much to see, it’s easy to find something to love at CES 2018.

CES 2018 has come to a close, and Android Central as a whole handed out Best of CES Awards to some fantastic products.

But the AC team is large and diverse, as is CES itself, so we wanted to round up the one favorite announcement from each of us here at AC to tell you how we all saw the show personally. That means some things that we saw personally at the show, some we lusted after from a far, and a couple that go beyond the Android and mobile world we typically deal with. These are the Android Central team’s favorite things from CES 2018!

Alex Dobie

The new generation of Google Assistant products with displays represent something really interesting and new. Google framed its first major CES presence around “Hey Google,” the new, slightly less awkward hotword for Assistant, but bringing the service’s AI smarts to displays that aren’t your phone was the shows biggest development for me.

Google is already making plenty of headway in enabling Assistant in Bluetooth earbuds from countless manufacturers, and at CES we saw Assistant make its debut on the long-neglected Android Auto as well. But devices like the Lenovo Smart Display give us the clearest picture of where Google sees Assistant going as a platform, when it’s not limited to audio because it’s using earbuds, or a limited subset of features because you’re driving.

Before long I’m sure we’ll see a similar interface replicated on TVs, Chromecasts and other devices, and that process starts with the early Assistant builds we played with at CES this week.

Andrew Martonik

I could very easily choose several different things here and have good justifications for doing so. Most of them will be covered by others here. So just to pick a less-than-popular one, I’m going with the Sony Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra.

I think Sony does so many awesome things with its phones. It just also happens to get in its own way with a lot of stupid things, like not having fingerprint sensors in the U.S. and overpricing phones with very iterative designs. But the Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra are promising because they show Sony’s still up for a fight, and that fight will happen in the U.S. alongside other markets — even when most would have assumed it would be understandable for it to leave the U.S. market entirely.

The XA2 and XA2 Ultra have fantastic feeling and looking hardware — now with fingerprint sensors — and also subtle changes like much larger batteries, actually interesting cameras (at least on the front here), subtle hardware tweaks for usability rather than just style, and other increasingly niche features like a headphone jack. All while having really clean software and design that’s still unique and striking. And this is in a pair of phones that will retail for around $400.

Sure these phones aren’t industry-changing titans, but they do indicate Sony’s going to keep trying. Maybe its upcoming flagships will take these cues and run with them — and that’s exciting to me. For a show that’s increasingly about more than “just phones,” Sony definitely used CES as a nice little nod to the phone lovers.

Sony Xperia XA2 and XA2 Ultra hands-on: No more quirks, these are just good phones

Tom Westrick

My favorite announcement from CES has nothing to do with Android or Google. Optoma is a company known for making great projectors at various prices, and they did announce the first projector with Alexa built-in. Part of the appeal of projectors (for me at least) is that most projectors are just dumb displays that can be expanded as I see fit, so I don’t care for that model.
What did interest me is Optoma’s 4K UHD HDR Laser UST.

That’s a mouthful of a product name, but it tells you everything you need to know. “UST” stands for “ultra short throw”, which is a type of projector that can be placed on a TV stand instead of needing to be mounted on a wall or ceiling. Those projectors can display almost straight up, and it makes for an easier set up. The Optoma UST projector is priced at $5,000, which isn’t anyone’s definition of cheap. At the same time, Sony’s latest UST 4K projector is $30,000, so the Optoma projector is a much easier pill to swallow. I’m probably going to wait until next year before taking a serious look at 4K projectors, but it’s great to know they’re coming down in price.

Ara Wagoner

I don’t have any one true favorite at CES this year, but I do have a few things that stood out among the blackouts, the robot strippers, and everyone trying not to say what the F in BFGD really means:

• I refuse to leave the house without my Bluetooth headphones, so Qualcomm announcing a new SoC that aims to help make Bluetooth headphones sound better and last longer on a single charge is fantastic. However, as more and more phones ditch 3.5mm headphone jacks and users become more reliant on Bluetooth to keep their tunes flowing all day, this is the announcement at CES that could impact the most people. Getting all-day battery, crystal-clear sound, and Google Assistant shouldn’t cost the $250 JBL is charging.
• Android Auto going wireless is great, and I can’t wait for it to come to more carmakers. No, really, I can’t: I’ve been waiting three years to buy a Honda CR-V with Android Auto. I can’t wait another three years to get wireless Android Auto.
• I use my Shield Android TV every day, and if I could get one of those Big — Friendly — Gaming Displays with the best Android TV inside, I would probably never get anything done again. I use my OTA antenna maybe twice a year, I use the Blu-ray player maybe three times a year, so really, all I need is a massive screen and Android TV.

Daniel Bader

My take on CES this year is a bit different than the rest. I am not going to highlight a single product or service but an idea: that despite the platform wars still going strong, they appear to be well-established and no longer in danger of being toppled.

For example, Google Assistant was everywhere at this year’s CES, but it didn’t preclude Alexa, which continues to slowly creep toward smart home ubiquity. SmartThings is becoming the overarching brand for all of Samsung’s IoT ambitions, while Bixby, for better or worse, will play front-end to all those commands, from washing machines to televisions. LG’s webOS, now in its fourth year, is a stable and good-looking smart TV platform with plenty of interesting features, and LG has added an element of AI to the proceedings with ThinQ. Even Microsoft’s Cortana and Apple’s Siri/HomeKit was well represented at the show this year, and there appears to be room for all of them to live in harmony.

With expansion to screens and cars, Google Assistant is officially everywhere

Marc Lagace

Since CES is all about featuring tech and toys I’ll likely never get to mess around with, I tend to be drawn to crazy concept products like Razer’s Project Linda, which aims to turn your Razer Phone into a slick-looking laptop.

Turning a smartphone into a computer itself isn’t a new concept, but I can’t help admiring Razer’s design choices here. I thought Razer was simply trying to buck the latest flagship trends with a brick-shaped phone lacking curved edges. Razer turned around and used the industrial design of the phone to complement the laptop hardware perfectly with its front-facing speakers and side button fingerprint sensor. I really don’t even care how it runs, it just looks downright cool and an encouraging adaptation for the Razer Phone — and hopefully a glimpse at Razer’s future endeavors building Android devices.

And here I thought Razer could top themselves after last year’s Project Valerie laptop …

Razer’s Project Linda turns your phone into a laptop

Joe Maring

My favorite announcement from CES 2018 is easily Lenovo’s Smart Display. I use my Google Home on a daily basis, and while it works perfectly fine, I’ve been yearning for Google to finally take on the Echo Show since its announcement last June.

I’ll probably end up waiting to see what Google Home-branded Smart Display we end up getting this fall before handing over any cash, but Lenovo’s caught my attention the most so far. The bamboo back on the 10-inch model looks stunning, the ability to stand it up vertically or horizontally thanks to the funky wedge is fantastic, and the physical switch to cover the camera lens is ingenious.

Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I will buy one of these as soon as Lenovo lets me.

Lenovo’s Smart Display is the Google Assistant-powered Echo Show we’ve been waiting for

Jerry Hildenbrand

65 inches of 4K G-Sync enabled 120Hz gaming pixels from ASUS.

The ROG Swift PG65 is one of the new NVIDIA Shield TV enabled giant gaming monitors and it looks like a big old box of Viagra. They have me counting all the money I can find in hopes that it’s enough. (It won’t be. It never is.) I currently use the second input on my gaming display with a Shield TV, so I’m already loving the way you can flip back and forth between a game and a movie. But my dinky little 27-inch gaming monitor is a far cry from 65 inches, so I’m sure I’ll like it even better.

Here’s hoping that the “later this year” release date is somewhere between the time it takes to save up the cash and before I see something else shiny and blow it.

NVIDIA partners with Acer, ASUS and HP for new 65-inch 4K HDR gaming displays that run Android TV

Hayato Huseman

I’ve been looking for a good Android Auto head unit for my car, so I’m pretty excited about Pioneer’s new models. They’re the first head units to offer wireless Android Auto (each unit creates a WiFi network for your phone to connect to), finally bypassing the need for cable routing and the risk of compatibility issues. You can also just say “Hey Google” to access Assistant hands-free, which is great for the road.

There’s also that Vivo phone with the fingerprint sensor under the display. I mean, come on. You know you’re excited to see that Synaptics module work its way into more mainstream devices.

Android Auto is fantastic with the addition of Google Assistant and wireless connectivity

Russell Holly

I love my HTC Vive, but you better believe I will be first in line to upgrade to this new Vive Pro HTC announced. The resolution bump is going to make the headset that much more immersive, the lighter body is going to make it way easier to use for longer, and the baked in headphones sound amazing.

This is an improvement on the original Vive in every way, and when you add in the wireless adapter that will be available later this year it’s going to be an entirely new VR experience for me. I am genuinely excited for what happens in VR gaming this year, and a lot of it is going to happen through that new Vive.

Hands-on with the HTC Vive Pro

Your favorites

That’s the list that the folks here at Android Central loved. What were your favorites from CES 2018? Let us know in the comments!

LA man charged with involuntary manslaughter over ‘CoD’ swatting

The man who was arrested last month in conjunction with the Kansas swatting incident that resulted in a fatality has now been charged. Tyler Barriss was arraigned in a Kansas court today and hit with three charges — giving a false alarm, interference with law enforcement and involuntary manslaughter — the latter of which carries a maximum prison sentence of 36 months and a fine of up to $300,000.

The swatting hoax that Barriss was allegedly behind occurred last month and is believed to have been instigated by an argument over a Call of Duty game. One player, who is believed to have been Barriss, threatened to swat another. That person then provided an address that wasn’t his own. Barriss has been accused of making a call to police saying that someone had been shot at that address and a hostage situation was ongoing. When police arrived, Andrew Finch, who was not involved with the Call of Duty game, was shot by an officer. Barriss was arrested a couple of days later in Los Angeles.

Barriss is being held on a $500,000 bond and is also facing charges in Canada over another, separate swatting incident.

Via: Kotaku

The new ‘Cosmos’ returns for second season in spring 2019

You won’t have to wait nearly as long for the second season of the new Cosmos as you did for the first. Fox has announced that Cosmos: Possible Worlds will premiere worldwide in spring 2019, with Fox itself airing the show in the US and National Geographic broadcasting it elsewhere. And yes, the familiar gang from the 2014 series is back. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will host, with Ann Druyan taking charge. Seth MacFarlane, Brannon Braga and Jason Clark will return as executive producers.

The team isn’t saying much about the overall focus of Possible Worlds, but they’re promising to cover “previously uncharted territories” and hint about a “virtually infinite” number of worlds and stories to explore. Don’t expect a carbon copy of A SpaceTime Odyssey, then.

With that said, we’d expect some familiar themes to return. Both previous seasons covered the universe at virtually every possible scale, drew attention to influential (if sometimes unheralded) scientists and stressed the importance of the scientific process. It’s hard to see Possible Worlds giving up those values, especially at a time when science is under attack.

Yup. We got the band back together. Another season of Cosmos is officially real. “COSMOS: Possible Worlds” To air on @FOXTV & @NatGeoChannnel in a year — Spring 2019. Be there. pic.twitter.com/BGFJG11Pim

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) January 13, 2018

Source: BusinessWire, Neil deGrasse Tyson (Twitter)