Snapchat gives influencers a look at how popular they really are

To date, Snapchat hasn’t shown any more data to its biggest users than its everyday audience — DJ Khaled and Chrissy Teigen probably know about as much as their success as you do. That’s about to change. The Snap team will offer a wide range of viewer data to the “tens of thousands” of popular users creating official Stories. That includes not only the views themselves (including how many people watched to the end), but demographics like age group, gender, regions and preferred topics. If creators are hip with the teens or have the beauty market cornered, they’ll know.

It won’t shock you at all to hear why they’re getting these stats: ad money. The more influencers know about who’s watching, the easier it will be for them to land sponsorships. While that doesn’t directly improve Snap’s bottom line, it gives those users a better reason to stick with Snapchat versus jumping ship to Instagram.

And that, in turn, could help Snap grow its audience. It’s still struggling to add new users, and it’ll certainly have trouble turning things around if Story creators drift away. This might also please brands who’ve been frustrated with the lack of info. The limited release leaves up-and-coming Snapchat stars out of the loop, but it’s a start.

Source: Recode

Which true wireless earbuds are worth buying?

With so many flagship phones leaving behind the headphone jack over the past two years, the need for a good pair of Bluetooth earbuds has only intensified. While the first crop of true wireless products had their share of comfort and connection problems, the selection improved dramatically in 2017, with companies like Bose and Bang & Olufsen coming out with sets that gave Apple’s AirPods a real run for the money. If you’ve been holding off on buying a pair because of cost, poor audio or because they just look ridiculous, it might finally be time to make the leap. We consulted reviews from top critics and came up with a list of six solid options that should have something for everyone, whether you’re on a budget or prize sound quality above all else.

Samsung Gear IconX (2018)

The original Gear IconX delivered lots of good features for a first-generation product, including onboard media storage and heart rate tracking. But those positives were outweighed by poor battery life, an unreliable connection and buttons that could be awkward to use while the device was being worn. The 2018 follow-up addresses these concerns with vastly improved connectivity and battery life along with a touch-based interface that won’t press painfully on your ears. The new IconX also adds Bixby into the mix, though The Verge found it was still somewhat unreliable at both voice recognition and delivering relevant information. At any rate, Bixby is only available on the S8, S8+ and Note 8 for now, so if you own another handset you’d be better served by other earbuds on this list, most of which lack voice interaction but do everything else a bit better.

Apple AirPods

When the AirPods first hit the scene back in 2016, they set a high bar for ease of use, though we still dinged them for weak audio and found the broken-off Q-Tip look polarizing, to say the least. Since then, plenty of challengers have appeared and bested Apple’s wireless earbuds in audio quality and appearance. However, few come close to offering such easy setup. Siri’s voice controls are still pretty ace as well. Of course, you’ll need an iPhone to really take advantage of the AirPods’ strengths. Android users are limited to music playback and calls, with many rival earbuds doing the former much better. Apple still has them beat on price though: The AirPods cost $40 to $90 less than their closest competitors.

Bragi The Headphone

Bragi’s Dash and Dash Pro are brimming with features like fitness tracking and onboard storage — and they have a high price to match. For those who just want a solid pair of wireless earbuds with good audio and a nice design, The Headphone is Bragi’s no-nonsense solution. Pocket-lint notes they’ve lost some of the “finesse and shine of the more premium set,” especially with the downgrade from touchpad controls to buttons. In return, The Headphone offers solid connectivity and improved battery life. The audio also may not quite match competing earbuds from Sony, Bose or Bang & Olufsen, but Digital Trends argues that “for $150 wireless earbuds they sound excellent.”

Sony WF-1000X

Sony’s first pair of true wireless earbuds look good and sound great, which is roughly what we’d expect given the company’s audio pedigree. Gizmodo calls them “sleek and recognizably Sony” while PC Mag compliments the set’s “excellent bass response and clarity in the highs.” The active noise cancellation certainly helps with the audio quality, though it can’t compete with noisy train or car traffic and can drain the battery. In general you won’t get much more than three hours out of the WF-1000X, but at least the charging case is lightweight and attractive enough that you might not mind carrying them around in your bag.

Bose SoundSport Free

Bose is known for delivering premium sound. With the SoundSport Free, it manages to do that in a form factor not usually associated with good audio quality. PC Mag says they deliver “crisp high-mid and high frequency presence” while Android Police finds them “surprisingly clear and detailed.” However, you need a quiet environment to get the full benefits, as the noise isolation isn’t great, and the audio sync isn’t always good enough to watch videos with it. Aside from that, the Free travels well, thanks to the set’s comfortable fit and IPX4 water resistance. But if you’re a little sensitive about your appearance in public, you might want to look elsewhere: The Free’s large and chunky build gave Android Police “flashbacks to the Bluetooth earpieces of years past” and is “kind of ugly.”

Bragi The Dash Pro

When we reviewed the original Dash earbuds two years ago, we liked how they incorporated so many elements into one small package but lamented their weak connectivity and battery life. They also didn’t excel at anything, especially in the audio department. Bragi has learned a lot since then: The Pro brings back all the things that worked the first time like design and fit but improves on key points like sound quality, which Wareable now lauds for its “impressive clarity.” Of course, with features like heart rate tracking and onboard storage, they don’t come cheap, especially if you opt for the custom-fit Starkey edition at $600.

JayBird Run

Jaybird’s been making Bluetooth headphones for a while now, and it was able to put that expertise to work in its first pair of true wireless earbuds. The Run’s sound quality won’t wow you, but we found they worked great for podcasts and still compared favorably to the competition. The buttons are a bit uncomfortable to press when you’re wearing them, but they’re easy to avoid thanks to a solid app experience. Fitness fanatics will certainly appreciate the Run’s water resistance and secure fit, and the four-hour battery life isn’t shabby at all — that’s plenty of time to get a few runs in.

Bang & Olufsen Beoplay E8

Bang & Olufsen is known for luxury design and premium sound, and now the company’s managed to package that into a form factor not usually known for either. The Beoplay E8 displays a “diminutive and understated” design that TechCrunch vastly prefers to Apple’s Airpods, with intuitive controls that are “easy enough to manage.” Once they’re comfortably situated in your ears you’ll be treated to “balanced, lively, and warm audio with a wide soundstage,” according to The Verge, and Macworld simply says that everything sounds amazing on the E8. The one real downside is the $300 asking price, which makes them one of the most expensive pairs you can buy. But if you’re a real audiophile who’d like less wires in your life, it might be worth it.

Apple’s HomePod may leave marks on wood furniture

We found Apple’s long-awaited HomePod belts out good sound for casual listeners so long as they’d already bought in to the iOS ecosystem (it needs an iPhone or iPad to work. Woof). But on top of sinking deeper into Apple’s mobile OS walled garden, new adopters have something else to worry about: HomePod is damaging wooden furniture it sits on.

Apple confirmed to Wirecutter that this issue is happening — but that “the marks can improve over several days after the speaker is removed from the wood surface.” And if they don’t go away, you can just clean the surface with “the manufacturer’s suggested oiling method.” In other words, it’s on you to refinish any wooden platform that your brand-new $350 domestic speaker has injured.

#homepod left rings on my wood furniture in less than 20 minutes of use. Thanks #apple I am glad a paid $400 to make perfect etched circles on my more expensive furniture. Guess I can not move it now to cover up the mark. Evil geniuses you are. #applesupport pic.twitter.com/eZng16barS

— Guy San Francisco (@Guyinsf415) February 10, 2018

As the tweet and other reports have noted, the HomePod leaves ring-shaped damage on wooden furniture. As Wirecutter pointed out, the smart speaker is fine to place on other materials like glass, granite counters, wood sealed in polyurethane and even venerable Ikea particle board, so resting your HomePod on one of those is a good idea. Or you could just buy any another modern smart speaker that doesn’t threaten to scuff up furniture you spent money on.

Source: Wirecutter

Apple News Drives Significant Traffic to Stories, Publishers Can Pitch Articles via Slack

Apple News can yield a flood of traffic for news publishers, with the app accounting for as much as 50 to 60 percent of readership for some stories, according to a paywalled report by Tom Dotan for The Information.

Apple News has generated half of Vox.com’s daily traffic at times, according to a person familiar with Vox’s numbers. An executive at the website of a major TV network said Apple News has accounted for as much as 60% of traffic for some stories.

The report claims Apple has an editorial team of about a dozen former journalists, led by veteran Apple executive Roger Rosner, who decide which articles get featured in the Top Stories or Spotlight sections of Apple News, or in the News tab on an iPhone, accessible by swiping left from the first page of the home screen.

The editorial team in the United States runs a dedicated Slack channel in which publishers can pitch stories to Apple, which tends to favor big breaking stories, special features, and multi-part series, according to the report. Apple is said to have similar teams working with publishers in Australia and the United Kingdom.

The curation process isn’t praised by all publishers, as smaller to medium-sized sites say Apple News tends to favor big mainstream outlets, which get featured prominently when users first sign up for Apple News.

A bigger issue that publishers have with Apple News is that many don’t earn any significant ad revenue from the app.

Part of the problem relates to how it sells ad space next to stories. Apple initially used its ad team iAd, but it later outsourced sales to NBC. It has yet to integrate Google’s industry standard ad-serving tool DoubleClick, which publishing executive say would make ad sales much easier.

This may change soon, as Apple has supposedly begun to run a closed test of Google’s industry standard ad-serving tool DoubleClick with around 20 publishers, in line with a report from last July. However, it’s unclear when or if Apple News will roll it out wider, according to the report.

All in all, while Apple News has proved more successful than first expected, there is still some progress to be made as Apple aims to become a key distribution outlet for news publishers around the world.

Tags: theinformation.com, Apple News
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Twelve South Debuts New SurfacePad Case for iPhone X

Twelve South today announced the launch of a new SurfacePad case for the iPhone X, expanding its popular SurfacePad design to Apple’s latest flagship iPhone.

The SurfacePad is a folio-style case, but rather than being bulky like most cases with this design, it’s ultra thin because it attaches to the back of an iPhone using Twelve South’s “SurfaceGrip” technology.

Basically, SurfaceGrip is an adhesive that lets you remove and reapply the SurfacePad to the iPhone X over and over again without losing tackiness.

The SurfacePad offers total device protection with its leather back and microfiber-lined leather cover, which also happens to have slots to hold two credit cards. A cutout at the back leaves the camera exposed so there’s no interference with taking pictures, and the sides and bottom of the device are also left uncovered.

Like all SurfacePad cases, the SurfacePad for iPhone X’s cover can be folded back and arranged into a stand for the device.

Twelve South has added a few features that are exclusive to the iPhone X, including automatic sleep/wake functionality when opening or closing the front flap and a new full-grain leather that Twelve South says will last longer and will develop a rich patina.

The SurfacePad for iPhone X is available in black, cognac, and deep teal, with the latter two being colors unique to iPhone X. It can be purchased for $49.99 from the Twelve South website.

Tag: Twelve South
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Apple Confirms HomePod Can Leave White Rings on Wood Surfaces With Oil or Wax Finishes

Apple has issued a statement confirming that the HomePod can possibly leave white rings on wood surfaces with an oil or wax finish.

Image: Wirecutter
The strange discovery was brought to light in HomePod reviews published by Wirecutter and Pocket-lint, as highlighted by VentureBeat, while at least one customer shared a picture of the same problem on Twitter.

Pocket-lint’s Stuart Miles:

For our tests we placed the speaker on a solid oak kitchen worktop treated with Danish oil.

Within 20 minutes the HomePod had caused a white discoloured ring to appear on the wood that some days later has faded, although still hasn’t completely disappeared.

We subsequently tested the HomePod on other materials: the same wood that hadn’t been treated with Danish oil and a regular lacquered desk and haven’t seen the same issues.

Apple told Pocket-lint that it is “not unusual” for a speaker with a silicone base to leave a “mild mark” when placed on certain oiled or waxed surfaces, suggesting the rings are caused by chemical interactions with treated wood.

Image: Pocket-lint
Apple told Wirecutter that “the marks can improve over several days after the speaker is removed from the wood surface.” If not, Apple recommends “cleaning the surface with the manufacturer’s suggested oiling method.”

The HomePod can damage wood furniture: An unhappy discovery after we placed a HomePod on an oiled butcher-block countertop and later on a wooden side table was that it left a defined white ring in the surface. Other reviewers and owners have reported the same issue, which an Apple representative has confirmed. Apple says “the marks can improve over several days after the speaker is removed from the wood surface,” and if they don’t fade on their own, you can basically just go refinish the furniture—the exact advice Apple gave in an email to Wirecutter was to “try cleaning the surface with the manufacturer’s suggested oiling method.”

It’s unclear at this point whether the issue is limited to treated wood, or if the problem could cause any sort of long-term damage to the HomePod’s rubber base. For now, we would obviously recommend not placing your HomePod on a surface with an oil or wax finish if possible.

Wirecutter conducted some additional testing and saw no visible damage when placing the HomePod on glass, granite countertop, nice fiberboard, polyurethane-sealed wood, and cheap IKEA bookcases.

Related Roundup: HomePodBuyer’s Guide: HomePod (Buy Now)
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Apple Now Selling Refurbished Apple Watch Series 3 Models

Apple today updated its online store for refurbished products in the United States to add a selection of Apple Watch Series 3 models, marking the first time Apple’s newest wrist-worn device has been available from the refurbished store since its September 2017 release.

As of the writing of this article, there are two refurbished Apple Watch Series 3 GPS-only models available at a $50 discount, which equates to 13 to 15 percent off of the regular price. No LTE models or models with stainless steel or ceramic cases are available at this time.

A 38mm Gold Aluminum Apple Watch Series 3 with Pink Sand Sport Band is available for $279, down from $329, and Apple also has a 42mm Space Gray Aluminum model with Black Sport Band available for $309, down from $359.

The Apple Watch Series 3, first introduced last September alongside new iPhones, is the first Apple Watch model to offer an option for LTE connectivity. Compared to earlier Apple Watch versions, the Series 3 also comes equipped with a faster dual-core S3 processor and an Apple-designed W2 chip for 85 percent faster Wi-Fi

Apple Watch Series 3 refurbished stock is limited at this time, but Apple refreshes available units on a regular basis, so it’s worth keeping an eye on the refurbished store if you’re looking for a discount on a particular model.

All of Apple’s refurbished products go through a rigorous refurbishment process before being offered for sale, which includes inspection, repairs, cleaning, and repackaging. Refurbished Macs come with a one-year warranty that can be extended with an AppleCare+ purchase.

For tips on purchasing a refurbished product, make sure to check out our guide.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Dubious marketing brings wrong kind of attention to the Huawei Mate 10 Pro

The Huawei Mate 10 Pro is already a controversial release in the United States, due to deals with carriers falling through at the last minute, but now some aggressive marketing tactics have been revealed that bring the wrong kind of attention to the device again. In the near future the Mate 10 Pro will be sold through several online retailers in the United States, including Best Buy, where it has attracted dozens of very positive review-style comments already.

These comments have been linked to a Huawei-backed promotion that allows a handful of people writing non-reviews on the Best Buy page to be chosen to beta-test the Mate 10 Pro in the United States. The promotion was posted on a Facebook page for both Huawei and Honor beta programs, and while the original has been removed, a screenshot was published by 9to5Google. It called for U.S. Mate 10 Pro beta testers with this carefully worded entry requirement: “Tell us why you want to own the Mate 10 Pro in the review section of our pre-sale Best Buy retail page,” followed by a link and a request to share the entry in the Facebook post comments.

At the time of writing there are 72 reviews on the Best Buy Mate 10 Pro page with 95 percent recommending the device, and an average rating of 4.8 stars out of five. Reading a selection of the comments, some do appear to come from individuals who have used the phone, while others do not. Others directly reference the beta test program promoted by Huawei, and use the review section to say why they should be chosen, and at the same time giving the Mate 10 Pro five stars.

Brand awareness

Anyone reading the vast majority of these comments wouldn’t be fooled into thinking they were genuine reviews of the phone, as many reviewers explicitly say they haven’t used it; but soliciting these comments — and gaining such a high average star rating before the phone is even on sale — puts Huawei in a poor light at a time when there is considerable attention on its conduct.

Fake reviews are not uncommon or anything new, and Huawei certainly isn’t the first to push or incentivize the public for comments to raise a product’s profile online. What’s disappointing here is not only that the Mate 10 Pro’s actual reviews posted by tech publications are almost all extremely positive, but it could damage the firm’s reputation at a crucial time. Huawei’s senior vice president of marketing Ketrina Dunagan said, “Brand awareness comes first,” during a meeting with Digital Trends at CES 2018, while CEO Richard Yu pledged to “win the trust of global consumers,” in his keynote presentation. Dubious marketing tactics run against that purpose and won’t help Huawei achieve its goals.

In response to the reviews, Huawei told Digital Trends: “Huawei’s first priority is always the consumer and we encourage our customers to share their experiences with our devices in their own voice and through authentic conversation. We believe there is confusion around a recent social media post reaching out to recruit new beta testers. While there are reviews from beta testers with extensive knowledge of the product, they were in no way given monetary benefits for providing their honest opinions of the product. However, we are working to remove posts by beta testers where it isn’t disclosed they participated in the review program.”

It’s unlikely the reviews will stay on Best Buy’s site, as most do not meet the company’s standard for acceptable comments.

Updated on February 14: Added comment from Huawei

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Google Pixel shipments double, but fewer than 4 million were sold in 2017

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Google shipped 3.9 million Pixel smartphones in 2017, according to an analyst’s data. This covers both the Pixel and Pixel 2 devices of both sizes, and is apparently higher than the sales recorded in the past, with the analyst noting that Pixel device shipments doubled from those in 2016. It’s important to note that the figure is based on shipments, which refers to devices sent to distributors, carriers, and ordered by Google itself, rather than the amount actually purchased by regular people.

The Google Pixel phones are sold directly through the Google Play store, and also through the Verizon network in the United States. In the United Kingdom it’s also available through Google, along with several other retailers and networks, including Carphone Warehouse. The phones are sold around the world in Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Puerto Rico, depending on the model. This makes a difference when comparing Pixel sales to other devices which are often sold globally.

For example, the Pixel 2’s natural rival is the Apple iPhone, but they are very difficult to compare using sales numbers. During the final three months of 2017, Apple sold 77.3 million iPhones, and that number was down from the same period the year before. While the two cannot realistically be compared due to Apple’s giant distribution, it does put Google’s struggle to create its own iPhone challenger into context. Taking on the iPhone with a strong smartphone is an area where Google has ambitions, above the Pixel simply being a reference device for pure Android, and is proven by its recent deal with HTC.

Google acquired a special team of engineers from HTC in a massive $1.1 billion deal that closed in January, along with nonexclusive rights to current and future HTC technology. These engineers already worked with Google on the Pixel phones, and are likely to do so with future generations. Spending this amount of money shows Google’s seriousness about its hardware projects, and how it doesn’t simply want to rely on the hundreds of manufacturers making Android devices to push beyond the billion-or-more Android users around the world. The Pixel’s shipment data, however, illustrates the work that lies ahead.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Peanut, the Tinder-like app for moms, celebrates an exciting first year

As many of us have learned, it can be hard to make new friends as we age into adulthood. Throw a couple of little ones into the equation, and you see why it can be especially difficult for moms.

Welcome Peanut, an app designed to help mothers connect. This Tinder-like app makes it easier for women to reach out and make real-life connections with other moms based on common interests and location, as well as the age and gender of their children. Mothers can start conversations or group chats and organize meetups with helpful scheduling tools.

This month, Peanut celebrates the one-year anniversary of its launch. So far, Peanut has more than 220,000 users, and more than one million messages have been sent through the app.

“It’s been a very exciting year in terms of watching women join this community,” CEO and founder Michelle Kennedy told Digital Trends. “We haven’t really done any formal marketing to this point, so we’re very proud of the organic growth. And I think that speaks to the quality of the user experience. As women, we want to tell other women about the great things we find, so that they’ll use them, too.”

Like any startup, Peanut experienced its share of ups and downs in its first year. The highs included being featured at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. But when the app initially debuted on iOS only, Peanut had to face frustrated Android users. (Note: Peanut is now in fact available on Android phones).

“It’s been a very exciting year in terms of watching women join this community.”

“It was always the plan to test the market on iOS first, but the requests from Android users came in thick and fast. It was hard to hear from women who wanted to make those connections and felt excluded. You feel horribly responsible,” Kennedy said.

While successes and disappointments could have been predicted, Kennedy did not expect the app to attract users from so many different places. Peanut is available throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, and its largest communities are in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and Dallas.

“Whenever I fly into a new city, I check in to Peanut to see what the density is like, how many women are using it, and what the conversations are like. I don’t know these women, and I have no idea how they heard about Peanut, but how cool is it that a girl from Austin, (Texas), for example, has found this community,” Kennedy said.

Another boon for Peanut is that in recent years, societal conversations have turned more toward women and mothers.

“When we first started building the app a few years ago, I don’t think people were talking about motherhood as they are now. People were certainly talking about women, but not necessarily ‘mothers.’ I’ve felt the shift, and I see it everywhere,” Kennedy said.

Although this attention on women is deserved and overdue, the problems Peanut aims to solve are not unique to them. In fact, surveys show that adult men are suffering a friendship crisis as well.

So it begs the question, will there be a Peanut for dads?

“He-nut! — that’s what my husband would like it to be called,” Kennedy laughed. “Never say never, but for now we’re very focused on solving this pain point for women.”

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