If skiing doesn’t excite you, check out the Samsung Olympic Showcases instead

In less than 48 hours, the world’s most highly anticipated show of athletic grace and prowess will take the stage in South Korea. But it’s not just PyeongChang who is playing host — Korean tech giant Samsung is opening up its doors as well. The company is promising to bring excitement to fans, athletes, and officials alike at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games by way of “interactive experiences” that can be found at a series of Samsung Olympic Showcases. These dedicated showcases are slated to encourage visitors to “Do What You Can’t” through immersive experiences.

In total, Olympic attendees and athletes will be able to check out nine Samsung Olympic Showcases that feature an amalgamation of cultural, technological, and immersive fan experiences, all of which will leverage virtual reality technology. These showcases will be found in the Olympic parks and villages, as well as the main press center, and Incheon International Airport.

Broadly speaking, the showcases are thinly veiled PR displays — a release notes that viewers will be able to experience “the Samsung brand history and heritage in engineering, design, and craftsmanship, and then the partnership history with the Olympic Games.” Somehow, we think this will be slightly less exciting than the Olympics themselves.

But then, by way of VR, nonathletes may be able to feel what it’s like to snowboard with an Olympian, or participate in alpine or cross-country skiing contests. Moreover, visitors will be able to check out the unrelated (but still cool) “Mission to Space VR: A Moon for All Mankind” created by Samsung. This will take participants on a space mission that includes a mission briefing, training suit and helmet try-on, and even some time in the Moon rig to feel lunar gravity.

“For two decades as a worldwide Olympic partner, Samsung has connected fans, visitors and athletes from around the world with our latest technological innovations, which have now evolved to also include immersive experiences,” said Younghee Lee, CMO and executive vice president of Samsung Electronics. “We’re delighted to share Samsung’s latest mobile technologies and products so fans and athletes can enjoy new, unique experiences while at the Olympic Winter Games.”

In addition to immersive VR experiences, Samsung will also be showing off the new Galaxy Note8 and S Pen, both of which will be on display quite prominently in the Portrait Pool. This experience will allow visitors to transform their selfies into paintings to share on social. The S pen will act as a paint brush, where as the Galaxy Note8 will ostensibly behave as a canvas.

And of course, Samsung would be remiss if it didn’t offer visitors an opportunity to actually buy the products they see — there will be full purchase and customer service available throughout the games so you can leave with mobile products and accessories.

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HTC U11+ now available to purchase in India for ₹56,990

The U11+ is being sold exclusively through Flipkart.

One of the last phones to come out in 2017 was the HTC U11+. The U11+ is an extraordinary phone, but actually buying one is quite the chore. Customers in the UK can only purchase the U11+ through HTC’s website, and folks in the U.S. are simply out of luck. Thankfully, our Indian readers are now getting the chance to check out HTC’s latest as the U11+ is now available on Flipkart.

In case you forgot what the U11+ brings to the table, let me run you through a quick refresher. The U11+ is the first HTC phone to adopt the 18:9 aspect ratio, and it does so with a 6-inch display and very slim bezels. The phone’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor and 6GB of RAM, and a large 3,930 mAh battery offers great endurance.

You’ll also find 128GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 2TB, IP68 dust/water resistance, Edge Sense, and Android 8.0 Oreo out of the box.

The U11+ is only available in the Amazing Silver color (sorry, no transparent back) and it’ll cost you ₹56,990 (around $886 USD). It’s still an incredibly solid smartphone, but before you pull the trigger, don’t forget that the U12 is right around the corner.

No matter what you decide to do, you can buy the U11+ on Flipkart with a click/tap of the button below.

See at Flipkart

Nest officially merges with Google’s hardware division

Right back where we started.

Following a report from last November, Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz announced on February 7, 2018, that Nest and Google’s hardware team are merging together in an attempt to create even better smart home products.

Nest was first purchased by Google in 2014, and while this allowed the two companies to work closely together, that relationship was distanced following the Alphabet restructuring that took place in 2015. However, with this latest announcement, Nest and Google will be able to have that intimate setup once again.

Per Fawaz:

The goal is to supercharge Nest’s mission: to create a more thoughtful home, one that takes care of the people inside it and the world around it. By working together, we’ll continue to combine hardware, software and services to create a home that’s safer, friendlier to the environment, smarter and even helps you save money—built with Google’s artificial intelligence and the Assistant at the core.

In addition to its Google Home and Chromecast products, Google’s online store already sells all of Nest’s hardware — including the Nest Thermostat, Nest Secure, Nest Cam IQ, etc. It’s unclear at this time if future products from Nest will retain their current branding or adopt Google’s, but I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if the latter ends up happening.

Assuming Google uses this partnership to release new smart home products this year, what kind of gadgets would you like to see?

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Take $100 off the DJI Goggles and experience drone flying in a whole new way

Look ma, no hands!

DJI’s first-person view Goggles are down to $349 with code GOGHEAD at B&H. These have gone for $449 since they released more than a year ago. If you want a discount, you have to go through shady third parties on Amazon, but traditional retailers like Best Buy sell it at its regular retail price. And this deal from B&H is better than all of them because not only is it $100 off the price, but you’ll also save a nice chunk of change on taxes (approximately $25 depending on location) if you live outside New York and New Jersey.

The DJI Goggles have two screens with 1920×1080 pixel resolution. They connect wirelessly to your drone and provide close-range viewing up to 60fps at 720p and 30fps at 1080p. The latency is just 110ms. You can also use Head Tracking Flight Mode to simply control the drone with the tilt of your head. You will experience your DJI drone in a completely new way. The battery lasts up to six hours.

The goggles are compatible with the Mavic Pro, the Phantom 4 series (including the Phantom 4 Pro Thrifter shared a deal on earlier today), and the Inspire lineup, which will set you back a few thousand.

See at B&H

Google Home can now show you things on your Chromecast

A visual forecast for the weather is only the beginning.

Last year’s Google I/O was home to a plethora of announcements, but one of the most interesting was a new trick with the Google Assistant that allowed it to send contextual info/graphics to a Chromecast-enabled TV following a voice command. Google’s been radio silent since the initial announcement in regards to when we could actually start using it, but it looks like that day has finally come.

As noted by multiple Redditors, asking Google Home or another Google Assistant-powered smart speaker to show you the weather on your Chromecast device will do just that. For example, saying “Ok, Google, show me the weather on my TV” will now display the current temperature and five-day forecast on your Chromecast-enabled television.

Google appears to be rolling out this functionality to select countries, and at this time, it only works with Google Assistant smart speakers — not phones or tablets.

Also, while this currently just shows the weather, it’s expected that this will expand to more commands/questions down the road. Future use cases could include a visual of traffic on the way to work, upcoming calendar appointments, etc.

If you’ve got a Google Home and Chromecast, do you have access to this? If so, is it something you think you’ll start using on a regular basis?

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Google hit with lawsuit over defective microphones on 2016 Pixel

Brought to you by the lawyers behind the Pixel 2 XL display lawsuit.

Lawsuits aren’t uncommon occurrences in the technology industry. Someone spends money on a phone, something goes wrong, and they hit up their lawyers to issue a class-action suit against the company rather than contacting customer support. In the latest entry of this series, Google is being sued over microphone defects for the original Pixel and Pixel XL.

Shortly after the Pixel’s launch in 2016, there were a few complaints from customers about people not being able to hear them during phone calls. Google eventually responded to disgruntled customers in March of 2017, saying that the subpar microphone performance was attributed to “a hairline crack in the solder connection on the audio codec.”

The firm behind the suit is Girard Gibbs LLP, and if that name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same firm responsible for the lawsuit regarding the Pixel 2 XL’s display.

While there’s certainly merit to some of the lawsuits that pop up, it’s worth noting that neither of the named plaintiffs in this case actually sent in their phones to Google to be repaired. Even so, Girard Gibbs claims that replacement phones Google issued still had problems with their microphones. Who knows.

I personally think this particular case is a bit silly, but I’d like to get your input on this. Do you think this is a mere cash-grab or has Google had this coming? Sound off in the comments below.

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DJI will create no-fly zones around Olympic venues in South Korea

Days ago, South Korean authorities announced that they’d capture any drone that got too close to Olympics event facilities. If you have a DJI-made craft, you won’t even be able to get close. The UAV maker is releasing a software patch that creates a no-fly zone around Olympic areas.

For the duration of the games, DJI drones won’t be able to fly through areas in the South Korean cities of Pyeongchang, Gangneung, Bongpyeong and Jeongseon.

“Safety is DJI’s top priority and we’ve always taken proactive steps to educate our customers to operate within the law and where appropriate, implement temporary no-fly zones during major events,” the company said in a statement, according to TechCrunch. “We believe this feature will reduce the potential for drone operations that could inadvertently create safety or security concerns.”

DJI has taken ‘proactive steps’ shutting down its drones around big events before, like the Euro 2016 soccer tournament in France and G7 summit in Japan, according to TechCrunch. But the company has accommodated other requests for no-fly zones, including in Washington, DC and in parts of Syria and Iraq to stop extremists from using DJI drones to deliver explosives.

Source: TechCrunch

Microsoft releases its LinkedIn resume helper for Word

Microsoft is now ready to polish your job applications — the company has released its LinkedIn-powered Resume Assistant for Office 365 subscribers. The AI-based helper sifts through LinkedIn profiles to find prominent examples of work experience and skill listings for your dream job, giving you some helpful tips for customizing your CV. You can also tap the ProFinder marketplace to talk to experts who can offer career advice, and search for relevant jobs without leaving Word.

Resume Assistant’s requirements are currently quite stiff: in addition to Office 365, you need to use Word in English and set Windows’ region to one of several countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the US). Support for other platforms, countries and languages will have to wait until sometime in the “coming months.” Still, it’s a start — and if you do live in the right place, this might be enough to help you stand out in a crowded field of applicants.

Source: LinkedIn Official Blog

Reddit bans the ‘deepfake’ AI porn it helped spawn

That didn’t take long. Hot on the heels of Twitter, Reddit has updated its rules to expressly ban AI-generated “deepfake” porn. Where it previously had a single rule forbidding porn and suggestive material involving minors, it now has two — and it’s clear that you’re not allowed to post “depictions that have been faked.” You also can’t post regular imagery of others with the goal of producing fake nonconsensual porn.

Accordingly, Reddit has cracked down on some of the offending communities. It has shut down the deepfakes subreddit that got the ball rolling, as well as YouTubefakes. It hasn’t closed non-deepfake subreddits like CelebFakes, however, and it’s also maintaining the communities with more innocuous intentions, such as FakeApp (the program itself) and SFWdeepfakes. At the moment, this is more about addressing the specific violations that triggered the uproar than to stamp out every potential violation of the policy.

In a statement to Engadget, Reddit reiterated the rule split and stressed that it hoped to create a “welcoming, open platform for all” that trusted its users to foster a space that “cultivates genuine conversation.” You can read the full statement below.

This certainly won’t eliminate all AI-produced porn. However, the deepfakes subreddit is considered the effective birthplace of the trend, and its disappearance might cut back on the volume of fake porn elsewhere. Discord, Gfycat, Pornhub and others have already vowed to ban material. The challenge, as always, is enforcement. There’s no guarantee that sites can or will remove everything. Creepy face swaps may persist for a long time, even if they aren’t as widespread as they have been in recent days.

Source: Reddit (1), (2)

Instagram test lets some share other users’ posts in Stories

Instagram is currently testing a feature that would let users share others’ posts in their Stories, TechCrunch reports. It’s only being tested with a small number of Instagram users and there’s no guarantee that it will see a full rollout, but since people tend to screenshot others’ content and add it to their Stories anyway, this seems like a useful tool that Instagram users would take advantage of. Instagram told us, “We’re always testing ways to make it easier to share any moment with friends on Instagram.”

New Instagram Feature – share feed posts to stories @MattNavarra @ingridlunden pic.twitter.com/keVl4lm9uB

— Zachary Shakked (@zacharyshakked) February 7, 2018

The feature only works with accounts that are public. So if your friend posts a cool pic of you and their account is private, you won’t be able to share that post directly in your Story. However, those with public accounts may not want to have their posts shared this way either, and Instagram lets you shut it down if that’s the case. Even if you aren’t part of the test, you can head over to your settings and scroll down to the “Allow Resharing to Stories” section. Just toggle that off if you don’t want it enabled.

Instagram has released a handful of new features lately. It launched text-only Stories earlier this month and began allowing users to follow hashtags in December. It also released the useful ability to archive your stories and keep in your profile those Stories that you want to stick around. In November, The Next Web reported that Instagram was testing a slew of new features, one of which being a native re-gram button. That function hasn’t been released.

To see if you’re one of the people with access to this feature, tap the share button on a public account’s post. If you have it, you should see an “Add post to your story” option.

Via: TechCrunch