Spotify’s ‘Amplify’ hub will highlight important issues with music

As part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, Spotify announced a new feature called “Amplify.” This hub will be a destination for topics from different communities, and will feature podcasts and playlists highlighting important issues. Because March is Women’s History Month, the streaming service is kicking off with “Amplify Women.” Future issues include gender equality, mental health, immigration and LGBTQ rights.

Playlists on the Amplify hub for this month range from “Icons and Influencers” (Adele, Tina Turner and Sia, to name a few) to women shaping genre and culture. There’s also an “Amplify: Women of the World” playlist featuring tracks from international women artists. The streaming service is also highlighting Latina women with its “Women of Latin” initiative.

It’s certainly an interesting move for Spotify. Let’s hope that this lands a little better than the service’s tragedy-focused playlists. Though the company may have good intentions, it doesn’t exactly come across well and it’d be better if Spotify just . . . didn’t do that in the future.

I can’t be the only one who finds these playlists that Spotify makes after national tragedies to be insanely tasteless, right? pic.twitter.com/9TJqLKOyUQ

— Nathan Ingraham (@NateIngraham) November 13, 2017

Source: Spotify

Hyperloop is edging closer to reality

Plenty has happened in the five years since Elon Musk first published his white paper on a system he called hyperloop. Since releasing that manifesto to the world, hundreds of people and hundreds of millions of dollars have been put to work, all in the service of bringing Musk’s retro-futurist dream of a vacuum tube for people to life. And despite being less than a fever dream half a decade ago, the pace of innovation is notably increasing, with 2018 already including several big announcements regarding its future.

There are a handful of companies all competing to be the first to build a fully operational hyperloop. The most notable, and the one that has achieved the most in its relatively short life, is Virgin Hyperloop One. Its biggest accomplishment was using some of the $300 million it has raised to build DevLoop, a 500-meter-long testing environment. Situated in the Nevada desert, DevLoop is the proving ground for the company’s maglev and pump technology as well as its pod design.

Because DevLoop is just a 500-meter tube, the company can only run the pod at high speeds before a few seconds before the braking kicks in. Yet despite this, the XP-1 test pod has reached speeds of up to 240 miles per hour, boding well for the future of the technology. Hyperloop One had initially planned to extend the tube much farther, but that plan seems to have been put on hold. Instead, the company will build longer test tubes that will, eventually, form part of the first full line.

In the US, the company is looking to connect major metro areas in the northeast, like Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; and Pittsburgh. In the northwest, a route between Cheyenne, Wyoming, through Denver, and down to Pueblo, Colorado, is also being looked at. In the center, a route that would connect Kansas City, Missouri, to St. Louis via Columbia is being examined while further south, the Texas triangle, composed of Dallas, Laredo, Austin and Houston, is also under consideration.

It is likely, however, that the world’s first hyperloop will be built outside the US, and India has made a claim to be at the front of the line. Earlier this year, Virgin Hyperloop One signed a deal with the state of Maharashtra to examine if a link between Pune and Mumbai is feasible. Unlike many of the others, however, this deal also includes a commitment to build at least part of a test track along that route. That means there could be a “working” — albeit short — hyperloop in operation by 2021.

Around the same time, Virgin Hyperloop One teamed up with Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority to show off a concept design for a passenger pod. The design isn’t necessarily final as much as a “what if” for the wealthy emirate, with a complement of 19 people per pod. Five will sit in a gold-class section while a further 14 will sit in silver class — although given that most journeys are expected to be around 20 minutes, are different comfort levels really that necessary?

The other big name is Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, a crowdsourced enterprise that harnesses volunteer labor. Scientists, engineers, economists and administration staff work for the company in exchange for stock options that will, should HTT become a success, pay off. From a slow start, HTT has now shaken hands on a number of deals to work with local authorities to explore the feasibility of joining cities together.

In February, the company signed an agreement with officials in North Ohio and Illinois to look at ways to connect Cleveland and Chicago. This study, under the name Great Lakes Hyperloop, will be completed by the end of 2018, and from there, the business of raising funds to actually build the thing will begin. HTT has also focused its intentions on routes in South Korea, Indonesia and the Czech Republic.

Beyond various investigations and proposals, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has reached several other milestones. At the start of 2017, the French city of Toulouse handed the outfit 3,000 square meters of space in a new innovation park it was building out of what was once Francazal Airport. It appears that HTT won’t, at least initially, have to pay for the privilege of using the space, although the details of the deal aren’t public.

And in March 2017, the company announced that it was building its first passenger capsule, which is expected to be finished in early 2018. The actual construction is being handled by Carbures SA, a company that builds structures for the aerospace industry. The pod itself will be 30 meters long and 2.7 meters in diameter, weighing a staggering 20 tons and capable of supporting up to 40 passengers. The company says that the pod will have a top speed of 760 miles per hour — the theoretical upper limit for hyperloop transit.

Its pod will use Inductrack, a levitation system initially developed by the American government. Inductrack is a form of passive repulsion that was designed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a way of making MagLev systems cheaper. The principles are simple enough: One object that is magnetically charged can repulse other pieces of metal. So rather than super-cooled, power-hungry electromagnets along the track, the Inductrack tech resides only in the pod. If you’re curious how that would work, check out our video exploration of the Hendo Hoverboard, which uses the same principles.

There have been missteps, and the company’s use of voluntary, as-yet unpaid labor raises questions over if it is a functioning business. A couple of PR own-goals haven’t helped remedy an impression that HTT is, if not amateur, then an amateurish enterprise. Like when, at the end of 2016, the outfit revealed that it had raised over $100 million, except that wasn’t technically true. Instead, HTT had pulled in $31.8 million in cash — no mean feat — and $77 million worth of “in-kind and land value investments.”

Of that figure, $26 million was “man-hours and services,” while land rights counted for another $22 million. Again, it’s a huge achievement to convince people, and governments, to contribute anything of that value to a small company forging ahead in a brand new industry. But also, there is that faint smell of disingenuousness that lingers over all of the proceedings.

Then there was the news that the carbon fiber composite that was planned to cover HTT’s pods would be called Vibranium. The same name as the fictional Wakandan rare earth metal that is used by Black Panther and Captain America in Marvel’s comics. Now, HTT has managed to successfully register the trademark in the US, both as Vibranium and Vibranium Skin. But we would imagine that, should it ever be used as a selling point, Disney’s well-heeled lawyers will have something to say on the matter.

Musk’s involvement in hyperloop was never meant to be more than pushing the idea out into the world and stepping back. He was, in his own words, too busy with SpaceX and Tesla to become involved with the concept. SpaceX, however, would remain on hand as a neutral arbiter, with its own tube that can be, and is, used for student pod design competitions.

However, Musk’s position began to change last year, when he tweeted that he had sought permission to build a link between Washington D.C. and New York City. The billionaire never clarified who would be in charge of building the project, although it could be presumed that it would be Hyperloop One. After all, the company was founded by his friend and staffed by former SpaceX employees. Plus, it had a few years’ head start.

But it appears that the work will actually be undertaken by Musk’s third enterprise, The Boring Company, which specializes in tunnel construction. Musk founded the company with the intention of reinventing roads, believing that cars needed to travel in tunnels to avoid traffic congestion. He coined the name Loop to describe a scenario where vehicles sit on magnetically-levitated sleds and conveyed through metro areas. The sleds, known as skates, would travel at around 150 miles an hour, aimed at eliminating congestion in cities like Musk’s home of Los Angeles.

Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 20, 2017

As for Musk’s own hyperloop, the company is now working with federal and state officials on a D.C to Baltimore route which could then be extended to New York. Both Washington D.C. itself and the State of Maryland has offered permission for exploratory digging to commence. In the former, the company is allowed to prod the soil at 53 New York Avenue, while in Baltimore, Musk is allowed to dig 10.1 miles of tunnel beneath the state-owned portion of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.

At the time, we pointed out that Musk’s renewed involvement poses something of an existential threat to the other hyperloop startups. After all, Musk has the financial, political and technical clout to disrupt the other entrants into the space. Not to mention that SpaceX holds the trademarks to the hyperloop name, and can force rivals to stop using the brand should it wishes. Although in a statement to Bloomberg, a The Boring Company representative said that they would only do so if the company wasn’t being “truthful.” Whatever that means.

If there’s such a thing as a hyperloop purist, then they’re probably flipping their desk at the sight of Arrivo’s name on this list. After all, the company isn’t proposing to put folks inside vacuum tubes and fire them across the country at high speeds. It’s not even proposing to build a city-to-city network that would dramatically reduce the need for short-haul air travel.

Instead, Arrivo’s plan is to use tubes at normal pressure, coupled with maglev sleds, to carry cars and trucks from one end of a city to the other. It’s a hybrid of the original hyperloop concept, and Elon Musk’s plans to reduce traffic congestion in LA, albeit with a different implementation. The tubes would sit in the median strip of a highway, with cars entering and departing at designated entry and exit-points.

Once inside, cars would sit on a levitating sled that would travel at speeds up to 200 miles an hour from point-to-point. Passenger pods could also use the system to get from A to B, and in the future, the pods themselves will be self-driving taxis.

Right now, Arrivo has signed a deal with Colorado’s Department of Transportation to explore ways to solve Denver’s congestion problems. Cars could avoid clogging up the arteries of the city to get from one end of the other by using the tubes. If implemented, the current journey time between the airport and downtown, or Boulder and downtown Denver, would be cut by up to 50 minutes.

Arrivo’s not just notable because of the system it is developing, but the people who are working to develop it. Brogan BamBrogan, David Pendergast, William Mulholland and Knut Sauer are all listed as co-founders of the enterprise. The quartet make up the “gang of four,” who previously held senior positions at Hyperloop One, now rechristened Virgin Hyperloop One.

Hyperloop One co-founder Brogan quit the company in July 2016, sending shockwaves through the hyperloop community. It subsequently emerged that he was suing the company he helped found for harassment and financial mismanagement. A falling out with legal council Afshin Pishevar which culminated in an alleged death threat: Pishevar (allegedly) draping a knotted rope on the back of Brogan’s chair.

Lawsuit and countersuit followed, with Hyperloop One contenting that Brogan and his accomplices had “tried to stage a coup.” By November of that year, the various hostilities had been settled, with the quartet free to build their own vision of what a hyperloop is, or could be.

The company plans to begin construction on a test track in Commerce City, Colorado, at some point this year. The half-mile facility will cost up to $15 million, and will be used to identify the fastest, and cheapest, ways to build the magnetic sleds. But there are plenty of questions about how effective Arrivo’s plan will be.

For instance, most tube-transit systems, like London’s Underground subway, have issues with trains pushing pockets of air through the tunnels. How will Arrivo reduce the issue of all this air zooming around without creating a vacuum, or making the tube significantly larger? There’s also the question of whether it’s right that the city should go out of its way to spend big to further subsidize carbon-intensive car travel rather than spending the same money public transportation. Also: What happens if Arrivo’s system is so popular that it, in turn, becomes the victim of a capacity crunch?

Beside these major players, there are also other people and groups working on their own hyperloops, from TransPod in Canada through to all of the academic pod design teams. All are looking to solve the technological and economic arguments that stand between us and high-speed transit. There is no guarantee that such a system will ever materialize, of course, between tight-fisted legislators and angry locals protesting where the routes will be built. But to think that all of this has been achieved in just five years is heartening.

Vacuum tube systems are nothing new, and we had working versions of the system in operation a century ago. But for a variety of technical, political and economic reasons, those attempts all failed before they could become adopted by the mainstream. Hyperloop One, with its working test track, has at least demonstrated that modern-day engineering can do what Isambard Kingdom Brunel couldn’t in 1848. What comes next, however, is far harder: Whipping enough public desire to see these systems built, and working out who should shoulder the cost to do so.

Japan sanctions cryptocurrency exchanges amid illegal activity

Late last week, Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges started making (weak) moves to self-regulate. This week, Japan is cracking down on exchanges over what Reuters reports as a lack of “proper” internal control systems as a means to mitigate risk. There’s also pressure to cull crypto’s popularity for criminal activity. Specifically, its use for money laundering and funding terrorism.

Which ones were targeted? Coincheck, which had $534 million in XEM currency stolen from it in January, for one. Others include Bit Station and FSHO, with Reuters saying there were seven being punished in total. While Coincheck has to submit a performance improvement plan by March 22nd, Bit Station and FSHO were ordered to stop business for a month.

For its part, Coincheck seems happy to comply with the government. CEO Koichiro Wada said that the current systems in place wouldn’t do the exchange any favors in terms of expanding the business.

Talk, unlike GPUs used to mine cryptocurrency, is cheap though. With the devil-may-care attitude so many exchanges in the headlines display, it’s anyone’s guess if Wada and others are doing anything more than paying lip service in the face of government scrutiny. After all, it’s that attitude that led to the Mt. Gox embezzlement debacle in 2014, and most recently, the massive Coincheck heist in January.

Source: Reuters

Google is trying to make its fast-loading web tech a standard

Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages have one main problem: they’re only available through Google, which makes their fast-loading technology irrelevant if you aren’t tapping a search link. Their underpinnings might not be confined for much longer, though. The search firm has launched a campaign to turn AMP-derived technology into a web standard. It’s aiming to clean up and refine these technologies (which include pre-rendering, offline support and locking down features) so they’re useful virtually everywhere. Sites that met the criteria could be treated the same way as AMP pages in Google’s search results and Android’s Top Stories news carousel.

The company’s David Besbris explained to The Verge that it had “always” wanted to turn AMP into something standardized, and was going to build off of the lessons it learned developing its proprietary approach. AMP was created in part because Google wanted a web-based solution up and running quickly, rather than letting apps and proprietary article formats (such as Facebook’s Instant Articles) take over during the standards creation process.

There’s no time frame or even a name for this technology. Google will likely have to go through multiple standards bodies (not just the World Wide Web Consortium), and these processes tend to take years. This is really about getting the ball rolling, rather than something imminent.

And the announcement doesn’t signal a halt to work on AMP. It wants “deep integrations” between its search tech and content, more advanced e-commerce and other upgrades. However, it’s evident that the company is treating AMP more as an incubator for new technology than a tool for control. While it certainly wants to give its own pages the best possible experience, it knows that improving the broader web ultimately helps its own cause. The faster and more flexible the web gets, the more likely it is that you’ll use the web (and thus view ads) instead of turning to mobile apps that fence you off from the rest of the internet.

Via: The Verge

Source: AMP Project

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 Called ‘Worthy Rival’ to iPhone X as Reviews Hit

Galaxy S9 and S9+ reviews are officially out, and they’re mostly positive. The consensus is that Samsung’s latest smartphones are iterative but improved versions of its already-impressive Galaxy S8 devices.

We’ve linked a handful of the reviews below for anyone interested, but since we’re an Apple-centric website, we’ve chose to specifically highlight some comparisons made to Apple and the iPhone X in particular.

Highlights

The Wall Street Journal’s David Pierce believes that Samsung and the Galaxy S9 once again “set the bar for smartphone design”:

Nobody makes better-looking phones than Samsung. Last year’s Galaxy S8 was a particular gem of a device, glassy and stark with that “infinity display” stretching almost entirely across the front. It was thoughtfully designed on a level only Apple used to be able to achieve. As a result, it flew off shelves.

So why change anything? Nine versions in, Samsung feels it has landed on the right design for its Galaxy S phones. A company spokeswoman compared Samsung’s approach to the way a luxury car maker might build new models: Nip and tuck, but dont change what people already love.

CNBC’s Todd Haselton described the Galaxy S9 as “a worthy rival to the iPhone X” in his review. However, he said Samsung still lacks a Galaxy S smartphone that “pushes the boundaries a bit more” like the iPhone X.

I don’t normally compare Android phones with the iPhone because the product ecosystems are so different […] There’s no question the Galaxy S9 is a worthy Android rival to the iPhone X, with a great screen, camera, wireless charging and more. If you’re buying an Android phone and don’t like Apple products for whatever reason, this is a safe bet.

This brings up a larger point: Samsung’s Galaxy S9 feels a lot like the move from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 8. It’s an upgrade, but not really a huge bump in a lot of ways. Samsung needs something in the Galaxy S range that pushes the boundaries a bit more, like the iPhone X does in Apple’s lineup.

Samsung finally included stereo speakers on the Galaxy S9, and Haselton believes they sound “noticeably better” than those on the iPhone X.

The Verge’s Dan Seifert said Samsung’s new “AR Emoji” feature is “built just to compete with Apple” and “not very good”:

There are a couple issues with Samsung’s AR Emoji. First, Samsung isn’t using any special tech to capture your face or movements, it’s just relying on the front or rear camera, so tracking is bad. Second, the characters it creates are on the wrong side of creepy, and everyone I’ve tested it with has been completely turned off with the results. The animal characters are similarly weird. It’s definitely something that Samsung built just to compete with Apple, and it’s not very good.

Quartz’s Mike Murphy said what irks him most about the iPhone X is that it can only be unlocked with Face ID or a passcode, whereas the Galaxy S9 has a fingerprint scanner, iris scanner, facial recognition, or a passcode.

However, he adds that the Galaxy S9’s iris scanner and facial recognition system are both slower than Face ID on the iPhone X.

While it’s nice that there are multiple ways to unlock the S9, the iris and face scanners aren’t as quick as the iPhone X. The iris scanner requires you to hold the phone pretty much at eye level and takes a few moments to scan, whereas Apple’s Face ID technology seems to work almost instantaneously, at a range of angles.

Mashable’s Raymond Wong touted the Galaxy S9 camera’s variable aperture, but he said low-light photos aren’t necessarily better than those shot with an iPhone X or Google Pixel 2. Most reviews agree it is a matter of personal preference.

Yes, the camera is smart enough to identify the amount of light in a scene and switch to the suitable aperture, but the photos don’t stomp all over the iPhone X’s or Pixel 2’s shots, even in low light scenarios.

The iPhone X still takes the prize for color accuracy. The S9 camera still over-saturates and over-processes photos. And the Pixel 2 XL is still the sharpness and low-light champion.

More Reviews

• TechCrunch
• Wired
• Axios
• Android Police
• The New York Times
• The Independent
• The Next Web
• USA Today
• SlashGear
• TIME
• Gizmodo
• BuzzFeed News
• CNET
• Engadget
• Digital Trends
• Pocket-lint
• BGR
• TrustedReviews
• TechRadar
• PCWorld
• T3

Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ can be pre-ordered on Samsung’s website for $720 and $840 respectively. The smartphones launch March 16.

Related Roundup: iPhone XTags: Samsung, reviews, Galaxy S9Buyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Netflix Subscriber Data Reveals 70% of Global Streaming Ends Up on TVs, 10% on Phones

Netflix this week gave a briefing to a group of reporters in its Los Gatos, California company headquarters, revealing data about its subscribers’ device streaming habits and how these habits might change over the course of a few months (via Recode). While the information isn’t particularly shocking, it is one of the rare times that Netflix has provided data and opened up about the streaming habits of its users.

In terms of global Netflix user signups, 40 percent of signups happen on a Mac or PC, but after six months those users have dwindled down to just 15 percent still watching Netflix on their computer. Over time, users understandably migrate to larger screens, with 70 percent of total global Netflix streams ending up on television sets six months after first signing up.

Under TVs and computers, smartphones represent 10 percent of Netflix streaming six months after signing up, followed by tablets at just 5 percent.

Netflix graphs via Recode
While there are some exceptions, this largely stays true across various countries around the globe. In Italy, for example, 36 percent of users are signing up for Netflix on their computer and 54 percent are spending most of their viewing hours on a TV set. Thailand users are predominantly signing up on their smartphones, but viewing habits are nearly equal between TV (35 percent) and computers (29 percent).

The favoritism for TV continues when broken down by genres, although there are slight variations in percentages where device preference varies from genre to genre. Kids shows, for example, are the least popular on computers and the most popular on TVs, while also favoring handheld devices like iPhones and iPads. Dramas have popularity on iPhones and other handheld products, while Documentaries are the third most popular genre to stream on a TV, behind Kids and Family.

CNET had a few additional tidbits of information, stating that about 25 percent of Netflix’s total global streaming for any given day happens on mobile networks, as users watch shows or movies on the go. Users also tend to watch movies more often on weekend evenings, while gravitating towards shorter TV show episodes during the hours of the day.

Earlier this week, Netflix said that it will soon add expanded parental controls across devices in the coming months, including the ability for parents to add a PIN lock to individual TV shows and movies. Ratings will also be more prominently displayed across Netflix apps and when content begins playing, so parents are more aware if shows and films are appropriate for their children.

As soon as April, Netflix will be rolling out vertical video clips that provide 30-second snippets of the service’s most popular content as a way to provide users with a quick glimpse into what the shows and movies are about.

Tag: Netflix
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Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus hands-on: Express yourself

Another year, another Samsung Galaxy S flagship. How do you take a flagship device that’s nearly perfect and improve it in any meaningful way? This is the conundrum Samsung faced creating the Galaxy S9, but the company seems to have found a few areas to improve its popular handset.

The Galaxy S8 was nearly perfect. It delivered an immersive smartphone experience, thanks to the Infinity Display, and pushed the boundaries of smartphone design more than ever before. The camera improved a little over the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S8 Plus was a big phone for those who wanted something a little larger.

Further reading: Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus are here: the best just got better

With the Galaxy S9, Samsung has kept similar design but tweaked it to create a better overall experience. There are two devices again this year. While the form factor and display size are the same as last year, both devices have a slightly smaller overall footprint. The Galaxy S8 Plus especially was a pretty tall device but the Galaxy S9 Plus is a little more manageable in the hand; by reducing the bezels above and below the display, Samsung has managed to shave 1.2 mm off the height of the Galaxy S9 and 1.4 mm off the Galaxy S9 Plus.

The displays themselves have also been tweaked a little, offering 15 percent higher peak brightness. The Galaxy S8 topped out at around 600 nits, while the Galaxy S9 is expected to achieve closer to 700 nits. For those bright sunny days, this extra brightness should help with overall legibility. The phones’ curves are not as steep as the S8 line, nor do their displays run all the way to the edge. Samsung says this is designed to prevent accidental touches along the edge of the screen and it will hopefully also address the light banding issue when watching a video.

The Galaxy S9 also bring stereo speakers to a Samsung smartphone for the first time. After its acquisition of Harman Kardon last year, the Korean manufacturer set about improving the audio on its devices, previously one of the poorest experience on any smartphone. This year, there are two speakers — a forward facing one joins the bottom-firing speaker from last year.

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Both have been tuned by AKG. As a result, the speakers are noticeably louder. Samsung says the overall output is 1.4 times louder than the Galaxy S8. Samsung also partnered with Dolby to add the Atmos codec to the Galaxy S9 — once enabled, it offers spatial sound playback which helps to add to the overall immersive experience.

The most controversial part of the Galaxy S8 family was the fingerprint sensor, which Samsung chose to place right next to the camera in a very awkward position. The company has finally addressed this in the S9 by moving it to the center, beneath the camera. The new positioning works well enough and means the sensor is useful again. On the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8, the positioning was awkward enough to be uncomfortable.

Those are the small improvements over the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, but the big improvements are in the camera. As part of its theme of being able to express yourself, the Galaxy S9 camera brings a collection of new camera features, as well as some tweaks to the Galaxy S8 camera.

The Galaxy S9 camera features the same hardware as the Galaxy S8 with a 12 MP super speed dual pixel sensor with optical image stabilization. The Galaxy S9 Plus also features the secondary camera found on the Galaxy Note 8, a 12 MP telephoto lens with OIS and f/2.4 aperture. Both devices feature 8 MP front-facing cameras with f/1.7 aperture.

More: Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus specs

The low light performance on Samsung phones previously let down the camera experience, but the Galaxy S9 looks to improve this with dual aperture and multi-frame image processing. The Galaxy S9 has a mechanical lens that opens and closes. For bright scenes, it’ll use the tighter f/2.4 aperture and for low light scenes, it’ll use a wider f/1.5 aperture. As a result, Samsung says there is 28 percent more light coming into the system than the Galaxy S8, which should improve the low light camera performance. The mechanical aperture is hardware based and doesn’t offer any aperture stops between the two. By default, the Galaxy S9 automatically picks which aperture to use but in Pro mode, you can control it.

The Galaxy S9 takes the detail and information from 12 photos to create one excellent photo

The multi-frame image processing is also new to the Galaxy S9 and it’s designed to help with noise reduction. The Galaxy S9 comes with DRAM on the camera sensor itself, which means the camera can capture four times as many photos at four times the speed. In a split second, the camera takes 12 images which are then sorted into batches of four. The software then uses all the detail and information for processing and noise reduction. It does this three times to give you the best three photos from each batch. The software then does it one more time on the three photos to get the overall best photo.

The DRAM isn’t just used for multi-frame image processing, but also for super slow-motion video. The Galaxy S8 offered 720p super slow-motion video at 240 fps, but the Galaxy S9 now offers it at 960 fps. This isn’t new to smartphones but the automatic mode is definitely a step above other devices. Instead of having to time exactly when to press record, the Galaxy S9 will also do it for you and all you have to do is press record.

The automatic mode works rather well and once you take a super slow-motion video, it also saves several shareable GIFs including effects such as loop and reverse. For those who want to relive a great super slow-motion video, you can save the video as your lock screen wallpaper. The software also automatically adds background music to the video, which you can then change to one of the preset sounds or a song from your music library.

Don’t miss: Top 9 features on the Samsung Galaxy S9

The Galaxy S9 follows the lead of the iPhone X and brings a new feature called AR Emoji. This feature captures your face, analyzes it, and allows you to make an animated version of yourself which can be customized further. The customization options include two different types of animation, either more life-like or more cartoon-like. You can also change the hair, skin tone, glasses, clothes of the image. After you’ve finished customizing your AR Emoji, it’ll save 18 GIFs to your phone’s gallery, as well as the Samsung keyboard, so you can easily share it with your friends. AR Emoji lets you record either photos or videos. While you can talk and move your head, it’s doesn’t seem to pick up as many facial expressions as the iPhone X.

Camera aside, the Galaxy S9 also brings a series of other improvements to Bixby, connectivity, and security. Bixby has gained a new food mode, which allows you to point the camera towards a piece of food and get nutritional information about it. Using the selfie camera, the new makeup mode allows you to try on makeup from Sephora or CoverGirl and buy it straight from Bixby.

The Galaxy S8 had two different biometric security options — Face Unlock and the Iris Scanner. The Galaxy S9 combines these into a new feature called Intelligent Scan. Samsung says both of these were great in certain scenarios and by combining them, it gets around the issues faced especially by the Iris Scanner. Intelligent Scan uses Iris Scanning as the primary security option for applications that need higher levels of security, like banking apps or Samsung Pay. For day-to-day unlocking of your phone Intelligent Scan uses the convenient super-fast experience of Face Unlock. How well does it work? This remains to be seen but we’ll find out in our Galaxy S9 review in the near future.

The Galaxy S9 is the first smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 845 processor and brings Gigabit LTE support. The regular Galaxy S9 comes with 4 GB of RAM, while the Galaxy S9 Plus has 6 GB of RAM. Both devices are IP68 water and dust resistant, offer fast wireless charging, and have a headphone jack. Both come with 64 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 400 GB using a microSD card.

The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus will launch in three colors in the U.S. — Midnight Black, Lilac Purple and Coral Blue. The fourth color — Titanium Gray — isn’t coming to the U.S. It’s not entirely certain how much they will cost, but pre-orders launch on March 2, ahead of its March 16 release. Samsung is also offering its first-ever global pre-order offer called Trade Up and Save, allowing you to get up to $350 off the cost of the Galaxy S9 when you trade in last year’s flagship from any manufacturer. Trade Up and Save offers tiers so those with a Galaxy S7 or two-year-old flagship from another OEM will receive a little less.

Related: Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus pricing and availability | Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus color comparison

What do you think of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus? Let us know your views in the comments below!

Astrophysicist says space junk, not radio signals, will lead us to aliens

Mike Mackinven/Getty Images

Spotting extraterrestrial life isn’t easy. Unless aliens show up hovering above major landmarks like they do in Independence Day, finding them depends on first finding other planets hypothetically capable of maintaining life, and then exploring them in more detail. Hector Socas-Navarro at Spain’s Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics in Spain has another idea, however — and it’s all about searching for space satellites.

“The main problem in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is that we don’t know what to look for,” Socas-Navarro told Digital Trends. “Scientists are very interested in ‘technomarkers,’ things that we could detect in other planets that would reveal the presence of a technological civilization.”

As he points out, this is a tough ask. Previous attempts to find “technomarkers” have focused either on technology that would be available to only the most advanced civilizations (think antimatter-based interstellar propulsion!) or ones which are virtually undetectable to us (such as global warming on other planets). Socas-Navarro’s approach aims to detect civilizations that are similar to ours, with the same technology that we have. It involves looking for satellites in geosynchronous orbit, forming something called the Clarke belt, a thin belt with a very precise diameter that is optimal for broadcast and relay communications satellites.

“Under certain conditions, a highly populated Clarke belt would be detectable in planets around other stars with our current telescopes,” Socas-Navarro continued. “Conversely, our own Clarke belt might at some point in the future be detectable from nearby stars. In the last decades, it has been growing at an exponential rate. If this rate continues, in the year 2200 we would be detectable by telescopes like our own. This is something that should be considered in the currently ongoing debate on whether humanity should send signals out into space.”

So what does Socas-Navarro propose? Namely, that our efforts to find extraterrestrial life should include training technology to seek out these instantly recognizable rings of satellites. “The really nice thing about this technomarker is that it’s free,” Socas-Navarro said. “It’s pretty much like getting a free lottery ticket. We currently have lots of projects, telescopes and satellites dedicated to the search for exoplanets, exomoons and their ring systems. The same data collected by these instruments is what we need to look for Clarke exobelts.”

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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2018) review

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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2018)

There are certain laptop brands that people will pay more for. MacBook is the first that comes to mind, but ThinkPad isn’t far behind. Laptops in this line have established firm footing in the hearts and minds of their users.

Lenovo is now on the sixth generation of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon series, a line of premium laptops that has made small, iterative changes to modernize the ThinkPad formula for its professional audience. Our review unit was the X1 Carbon, which contains the most recent 8th-gen Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage.

ThinkPad laptops come at a premium — and that hasn’t changed here. At a starting price of $1,790, you’re going to be paying more for this laptop than for many competitors with similar components. ThinkPad has its fans, but has Lenovo has made enough changes to win over newcomers?

The ThinkPad gets fresh branding

The sixth generation X1 Carbon is slick enough in the right areas to compete with other modern computers, while retaining the recognizable ThinkPad design. Lenovo hasn’t ditched the iconic red TrackPoint, the upper-left alignment print on the keys, or the chunky, old-school mouse click. A splash of branding updates refines just about every logo, howeverh including the subtler ThinkPad on the palm rest. Even the small “X1” logo on the back of the lid helps spice up the overall look.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

But Lenovo’s ThinkPad is no longer alone in cultivating a strong PC brand. The XPS 13 comes to mind first, as it’s marked by its interesting choice of materials, tiny bezels, and small footprint. It’s a bit more luxurious, but Dell has established a reputation and design language while offering the XPS 13 at a much lower base price. HP has also firmed up its design language, and the Spectre models – though they look much different –compete with ThinkPad in perceived quality.

It’s an understated laptop, but that’s always been part of the ThinkPad charm.

Still, the X1 Carbon feels rock-solid when handled. Every surface of the device is covered in carbon material, giving a soft-touch feel. It’s welcoming compared to the hard plastic that some other ThinkPads use. It also feels durable and solid, with almost no flex or give in the keyboard deck or lid. As expected, every panel of the X1 Carbon feels carefully constructed. If you’re coming from a MacBook Pro or Surface Book, you won’t be impressed, but it’s a small step up from the Dell XPS 13 or HP Spectre 13.

It’s not the thinnest and lightest laptop we’ve ever used, but the X1’s size is impressive. At just under 2.5 pounds, it’s half a pound lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and 0.17 pounds lighter than the Dell XPS 13. It’s a tad heavier than the HP Spectre 13, but not by much. At its thinnest, it’s smaller than the MacBook Pro and Surface Book 2, though not as thin as the XPS 13, Spectre 13, or ZenBook 3 Deluxe.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2018) Compared To

HP EliteBook X360 G2

Dell Latitude 13 7370

Lenovo ThinkPad P50 20EN-001RUS

Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon (3rd Gen)

Lenovo Z40

Acer TravelMate TMP645-MG-9419

Lenovo ThinkPad T440s

Toshiba Tecra Z40

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E431

Lenovo ThinkPad T431s

HP EliteBook 8560p

Toshiba Satellite M300-S1002X

Lenovo ThinkPad T60p

Gateway NX570

Lenovo 3000 V100

As a laptop intended for getting serious work done, the X1 Carbon has everything you’ll need in terms of port coverage. The legacy ports like a full-size HDMI and two USB-A should please businesspeople, ensuring that connecting to displays and accessories of all sorts is possible. It also has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, matching what you’ll find in laptops like the HP Spectre 13 and Dell XPS 13.

The master of keyboards, touchpads, and pointing sticks

ThinkPad truly excels at the fundamentals, and ThinkPad’s keyboard is famous — not just for its look, but also feel. ThinkPads offer great tactile feel, so key presses encourage quick, accurate typing. We may never warm up to the weird placement of the arrow keys and Function keys (and really unfortunate placement of the Page Up key), but none of that will surprise experienced ThinkPad users.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Lenovo’s famous TrackPoint is dead center in the middle of the keyboard, just as fans will expect.  These used to adorn every laptop you could buy, but now they’re found only on ThinkPads, and a few workstation models for Dell and HP. Lenovo has traditionally been the standard-bearer for this type of cursor because its version feels better than its peers, and that remains true today. The TrackPoint is quick, responsive, and doesn’t require much effort to use – if you’re into it. If you’re not, we have good news.

The click of the trackpad is nearly perfect. It’s precise and satisfying, yet not loud or stiff. The problem is the size.

The X1’s touchpad available on a Windows device, only falling behind the Surface Book 2 and XPS 13. Navigating is fluid, and the touchpad almost never mistakes a resting thumb for two fingers. The click of the trackpad is nearly perfect. It’s precise and satisfying, yet not loud or stiff. The problem is the size. Because of the placement of the left and right click buttons above (for the comfort of TrackPoint users), the touchpad surface is small. It’s one of the downfalls of the TrackPoint, and unfortunate for those who’d rather use the laptop’s touchpad.

Lenovo has also included many helpful add-on features, such as a cover for your webcam, advanced fingerprint-scanning technology, and a touchscreen. While the fingerprint scanner will be an important addition for IT professionals, the touchscreen is a bit of a letdown. It’s a new addition to the sixth generation X1 Carbon, but it’s not all that responsive, which lead to frustration as we tapped multiple times to open a window or close a dialog box.

Keep it indoors and have those headphones on hand

The X1 Carbon we tested had a 14-inch IPS non-gloss display, coming in at a pixel resolution of 1920 x 1080. It’s larger than the average 13-inch laptop, but it’s a comfortable size for a work laptop, thanks to the additional screen real estate at your disposal.

The X1 Carbon fares well in color accuracy, nailing a low average color error, and showing a decent 78 percent of the Adobe RGB scale. Most impressive was contrast, where it’s bested by the Surface Book 2. The only real problem — and this was noticeable right away — was brightness. A score of 297 nits was a ding on an otherwise great display, compared to the Surface Book 2 and MacBook Pro’s 400+ nits of brightness. However, the matte display coat makes the screen’s mediocre brightness less of an issue because glare from ambient light isn’t visible.

It should be noted that Lenovo does offer a 4K HDR model, available only in the high-end configuration. While it claims to go up to 400 nits and display some vivid colors, we haven’t gotten to test it out yet.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The down-firing speakers on the X1 Carbon are nothing to write home about. You’d better plan on bringing headphones with you to work — although you should do that anyways. Along with the speakers, Lenovo has thrown in a couple of 360 degree far-field microphones that enable the Cortana voice assistant. Although it’s not something we used much (especially at work), the mics picked up voices well, even with significant background noise.

Excellent performance, at a price

Our review unit came with the 8th-gen Core i5-8250U, which is a quick, mid-range processor to have as its base configuration. It also starts with 8GB of RAM and an impressive 512GB of NVMe SSD storage. That’s twice as much storage as you’d expect to see in an average base-level configuration, which is where some of the increase in price comes from.

We found the Core i5-8250U handled our benchmark and stress tests well, as expected. It showed significant gains over the previous-generation CPU in the 2017 X1 Carbon. We saw a 44 percent increase in multi-core performance in our GeekBench test. If you are running multiple instances of Photoshop, Excel, and Google Chrome you’ll start to notice heat and noise, but it’s not excessive. The Core i5 configuration of the X1 Carbon should be a good choice for most professionals.

There’s no question that Lenovo is charging a premium for the processor.

Meanwhile, if you stick with the Core i5, same Core i5 processor comes in configurations of the Dell XPS 13 and HP Spectre 13 for only $1,200. The $1,790 X1 Carbon comes with twice as more storage, but there’s no question that Lenovo is charging more for the processor you get here. You can take the X1 Carbon up to a Core i7-8650U if you’re willing to pay, though it’s not going to be cheap.

Speaking of storage, Lenovo has included some speedy components on the X1 Carbon. With 512GB of NVMe SSD storage, you’ll never run out of space, and you’ll never have to wait long to write or read files. As you can see from the results above, The X1 Carbon blows away competitors in hard drive write performance, where it saw the best results outside of the Surface Book 2. People don’t often purchase laptops based on storage performance, but if they did, the X1 Carbon would be an instant buy.

Not for games, usually

You won’t be surprised to learn that the ThinkPad X1 Carbon isn’t made for playing games. It’s an enterprise-focused laptop with productivity work at its heart. Despite the recent appearance of affordable 13-inch laptops with discrete graphics (like the ZenBook 13), you won’t find one here.

We ran it through 3DMark to see how the integrated Intel UHD 620 graphics could hold up to the pressure. With scores dipping below half of what you get on the MX150-powered ZenBook 13, set your expectations low for what you can do with graphic-intensive software or games.

But not all games require complicated 3D graphics if you reduce the graphics settings a bit. We tried out Rocket League in 1080p and saw decent framerates in “Performance” and a barely-playable 24 FPS on “High Quality.” You’ll can get by in some games with lowered settings, but your mileage may vary.

Battery life

The battery life of the X1 Carbon was a bit confusing. It came with a 57 watt-hour battery, which is common for a laptop of this size. Lenovo cites 15 hours of battery, though in our experience, you won’t enjoy anywhere close to that much.

The X1 Carbon fared well in our more web browsing benchmark, where it lasted over 6 and a half hours, though it’s still a bit behind XPS 13. It scored better than expected in the Basemark web browsing test, which is the most intensive benchmark we run, where it surpassed its competitors.

The real problem was in our video looping test, where we play a 1080p video on loop until the battery dies. Lasting just around 8 hours, it’s well behind the 13 and a half hours of the XPS 13 or even the 9 hours of the HP Spectre 13. In daily usage, you’ll probably be able to stay away from a wall plug for around 7 or 8 hours, which is a bit behind the competition, and even a step back from the previous generation of X1 Carbon.

Our Take

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is well-rounded. It nails the fundamentals, from its keyboard to its performance. However, there’s no question the bang-for-your-buck value just isn’t up to snuff.

Are there other alternatives?

The most significant alternative to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is the Dell XPS 13, which is a more modern laptop in every way. The $1,200 configuration uses the same CPU and RAM, but only comes with 256GB of SSD storage. An identical configuration is offered by Lenovo, but it’ll cost you $1,520 in comparison.

If you’re more about looks and design than value, the MacBook Pro or the Surface Book 2 are always good options. You can buy the non-Touch Bar version of the MacBook Pro (which is the one we’d recommend) with hardware similar to the X1 for $1,700. You can’t configure a Surface Book 2 to match the X1 Carbon, but you’ll be able to easily add on a discrete GPU or more storage.

How long will it last?

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon comes with a standard 1-year warranty.. Outside of that, the varied port selection and excellent construction should make the X1 Carbon last for many, many years.

Should you buy it?

For most people, no. ThinkPad lovers will find a lot to appreciate here, but the price tag is a problem. The X1 Carbon is a laptop you’ll love to own – if your company pays for it.

Invalid software has Oculus Rift owners facing a global blackout

Oculus Rift

If your license plate expires, you can still drive the car. But when a software-based certificate expires, you can’t drive the Oculus Rift to any virtual realm. Owners of the Facebook-owned virtual reality headset for the PC discovered this harsh reality on Tuesday when they booted up the device and faced a warning message, blocking use of the device: It can’t use the Oculus Runtime Service. 

The problem has nothing to do with PCs or the Oculus Rift hardware; the issue is on the Oculus VR side that only the company can fix. More specifically, the OculusAppFramework.dll file currently has an invalid, expired certificate, preventing Windows 10 from running the software needed to power the Oculus Rift.  

“We’re aware of an issue affecting Rift on PC, and we’re working on resolving now. Stay tuned,” said Oculus VR’s Nate Mitchell three hours ago. 

A certificate is essentially a certified digital signature by the developer confirming that said software is genuine and distributed by the company. It’s a guarantee that the code isn’t altered, and is untouched by hackers. But because this certificate is certified, developers must pay for the certification. In the case of Oculus VR’s Oculus Runtime Service file, recertification likely fell through the cracks. 

That said, rebooting the PC, rebooting the Oculus Rift, and reinstalling the software won’t solve the problem. Instead, Oculus VR must renew the “invalid” certificate and redistribute the software with the new certificate intact. After that, Windows 10 should be pleased with the update and allow Oculus Rift owners to return to their virtual realms. 

A possible temporary fix is to set the PC’s system clock back to sometime before March 7, 2018. But the method could break other apps and software installed on the PC that require a precise date and time to function correctly. The best option is to wait for Oculus VR to release a software update that reactivates all the Oculus VR headsets currently in the dark across the globe. 

The Oculus Rift global blackout follows news that the headset became the most popular VR device on Steam for the first time during the month of February. It commanded 47.31 percent of Steam’s VR headset market last month followed by the SteamVR-powered HTC Vive with a 45.38 percent share. Trailing very far behind were the new Windows Mixed Reality headsets with a 5.36 percent share, which began rolling out over the last several months. 

For $400, the Oculus Rift kit comes with the VR headset, two motion-tracking sensors, two controllers, all the necessary cables, and seven free VR apps. Meanwhile, the HTC Vive kit costs $600 and includes the headset, two controllers, two motion-sensing base stations, all the necessary cables, and a digital code for Bethesda’s Fallout 4 VR.

The Rift’s rise in popularity on Steam is undoubtedly fueled by the lower price tag. Yet right now, HTC Vive owners can jump into their virtual experiences at any time while Rift owners are facing a global blackout.

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