Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra review: It’s about time

For more than five years, Sony’s smartphone lineup has more or less remained the same. Compared to other competing smartphones, the company’s offerings always trailed behind in design, overall hardware features, and other popular smartphone trends like near bezel-less displays, dual cameras, and QHD resolution screens. They were good phones, but they were unexciting and almost always priced too high for what they offered compared to the competition. Factors like the fingerprint sensor being unavailable in the U.S. and a lack of carrier support made them even more unappealing.

Now it looks like Sony is finally starting to make some significant changes. Is it too little too late? We won’t be able to fully answer that question until Sony’s flagship Xperia XZ2 hits the market, but its new mid-range smartphone might give us a glimpse into Sony’s future. This is the Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra review.

Design

Sony’s previous design grew stale rather fast but the XA2 Ultra is Sony’s first smartphone in a long time to make some drastic changes. Despite its decidedly mid-range specs, it looks and feels every bit like a high-end smartphone. The distinct boxy and rectangular Sony shape mostly remains intact; from a distance, you may not notice anything different. Once you take a closer look though, the changes Sony made to modernize the design become clear.

With a thick and heavy all-metal body, the XA2 Ultra is sturdy. It feels like an absolute tank. The build quality is top notch, with nice design flourishes like chamfered edges, a slightly curved back, and rounded sides for improved ergonomics. Despite all that, the XA2 Ultra isn’t the most comfortable phone to hold and use. The smooth metal finish provides very little grip.

The Ultra name means this phone is big, which may not appeal to everyone.

The Ultra name means this phone is big, which may not appeal to everyone. There are so many big Android phones out there nowadays that physical size is rarely a topic of conversation anymore, especially with manufacturers shrinking down bezels and switching to 18:9 displays to make big phones smaller. The XA2 Ultra follows some of these trends.

Its side bezels are practically non-existent and the top and bottom bezels are slightly smaller, though the phone is still incredibly wide, tall, and thick. It takes me back to the days of the Nexus 6. It’s an uncomfortable one-handed device and its sharp corners jab you in the palm, only adding to the discomfort.

Display

It’s not the most impressive-sounding display but it certainly won’t disappoint.

The smaller bezels might make you think the XA2 Ultra has an 18:9 display, but that isn’t the case. Instead, the XA2 Ultra sticks with a more traditional 16:9 display, which is partly why the phone is still so wide despite its thinner side bezels. The screen is a 6-inch IPS LCD with a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, covered in 2.5D glass for a slight curve along the edges which blends in nicely with the rest of the phone’s subtly rounded aesthetic. It’s not the most impressive-sounding display but it certainly won’t disappoint. At six inches there’s plenty of screen real estate to comfortably browse the web and enjoy content such YouTube videos, movies, or games.

Read more: What is the 18:9 aspect ratio all about?

The 1080p resolution spread over a 6-inch display doesn’t result in the highest pixel density, but the screen is still plenty sharp and easy to read. The display has vibrant color, excellent contrast, great viewing angles, and gets bright enough to see in direct sunlight. Like many other Sony smartphones, The XA2 Ultra offers the ability to easily adjust the screen’s white balance, color gamut, and contrast within the software if the default out of the box settings don’t quite suit your taste.

Performance

The XA2 Ultra is powered by fairly run-of-the-mill midrange specs. It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor and 4GB of RAM. In my week of use, the XA2 Ultra performed admirably. Swiping through home screens, launching applications, and playing games was a responsive and fluid experience and 4GB of RAM was plenty of memory for smooth multitasking. The XA2 Ultra will not produce mind-blowing benchmark numbers, but in real-world use, it should be more than enough to satisfy most users.

Where the Snapdragon 630 processor truly shines is its battery life because it’s one of Qualcomm’s more battery-efficient processors. Sony also bumped up the battery capacity in the XA2 Ultra to 3,580mAh, a significant increase over the previous generation. The XA2 Ultra consistently lasted me two days on a single charge, with screen-on time easily reaching the six-hour mark.

Fast charging is available via Quick Charge 3.0 and Sony’s stamina mode can help prolong battery life when you can’t get to a charger. The XA2 Ultra also comes with other useful battery features like Battery Care and Qnovo Adaptive Charging, which helps keep your battery healthier and extends its lifespan.

Hardware

The XA2 Ultra is available in two storage options with 32 or 64GB variants. If you want more space there’s a microSD card slot for up to 256GB of additional storage. Bluetooth 5 is onboard with support for higher-quality audio with AptX HD. You’ll probably also be happy to know the XA2 Ultra keeps its headphone jack — something which won’t be in Sony’s upcoming XZ2 flagship.

You’ll probably also be happy to know the XA2 Ultra keeps its headphone jack.

Flanking the USB Type-C port on the bottom is a single speaker, which, much like most single-firing speakers, isn’t much to write home about. It gets fairly loud, with no noticeable signs of distortion, but the placement makes it easy to muffle and it fires audio sideways when holding the phone in landscape.

It’s unfortunate Sony took this long to make it happen but as the saying goes — better late than never.

The biggest hardware change Sony made this year is the relocation of the fingerprint sensor. What used to be embedded in the side mounted power key has been moved to the back, right below the camera. It’s spacious, easy to reach with an index finger, and reasonably fast at unlocking. It also finally works for U.S. users. It’s unfortunate Sony took this long to make it happen but as the saying goes, “better late than never.”

Camera

One of the biggest highlights of the XA2 Ultra are its cameras — at least according to Sony. The XA2 Ultra comes with two front-facing cameras, which we haven’t seen since the LG V10. The main sensor is a 16MP camera with optical image stabilization for improved low light shooting and less chance of a blurry selfie should you have a shaky hand. The secondary sensor is a wide-angle 8MP shooter with a 120-degree field of view to make group selfies easier or simply fit more of the background into the frame.

Next to the primary front-facing shooter is a flash Sony calls a slow-sync flash. Normally when you take a selfie in a dark environment and use a flash, your face will be properly illuminated but the background remains dark. The slow-sync flash is designed to alleviate this problem by evenly lighting the subject and the background so you can see more detail. In everyday practice, it works but it isn’t as impressive as it seems. Photos appear more natural and more of the background is easily visible but it introduces more noise into the shot.

Image quality in general from the front-facing camera is not as good as I would have expected from a 16MP camera with OIS. Sony’s image processing will give your selfies a very soft look, which is great for hiding blemishes and fine detail but it feels a little aggressive. A skin softening feature is enabled by default, but turning this off doesn’t seem to make a noticeable difference.

The rear camera is a 23MP Exmor RS sensor with f/2.0 aperture and max ISO performance of 12,800. This is impressively high for a smartphone camera (although a far cry from the Huawei P20) and will create brighter images in low light, though unfortunately ISO levels beyond 3,200 can’t be dialed in manually. Regardless, you’ll likely never want to shoot at higher ISO levels due to the heavy increase in noise, which already visibly creeps in when the camera approaches even 1,000 ISO. Image quality deteriorates quickly in dark or night time situations with soft details, overblown highlights, and washed-out colors, giving the images a very muddy appearance.

Unsurprisingly, the camera fairs better in bright or well-lit environments. Color reproduction is natural and properly saturated, and images are sharp. The camera’s biggest downfall is its poor dynamic range. Shadows are heavily crushed in almost every situation, resulting in less detail. HDR helps tremendously with that, but I’m still not a fan of how Sony buries HDR in the manual mode camera settings. It’s cumbersome to access and unintuitive, meaning many users will never enjoy its benefits.

Software

The software experience on the XA2 Ultra is very standard Sony. It’s based on Android 8.0 Oreo with Xperia customizations. If you’ve used any recent Sony smartphone, you’ll instantly feel right at home. Sony’s customizations are unobtrusive and they keep the experience very close to stock, which I’ve always enjoyed.

Sony’s customizations are unobtrusive and they keep the experience very close to stock.

The XA2 Ultra comes with typical Sony features be found in many of the company’s other devices, like Playstation integration and the Xperia theme engine for customizing the wallpaper, icons, and general UI. A list of recommended apps can be accessed by swiping down on the home screen or through the app drawer, though I’ve never found this to be particularly useful.

Specific to the XA2 Ultra is the addition of one-handed features, which can make operating the phone with one hand easier. Using these features you can shrink the UI into a smaller resizable window and shift other elements such as the dialer and pattern lock to either the left or right side of the display.

Gallery

Specifications

Display	6″ Full HD 1080p
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 630
RAM	4 GB
Storage	32 GB 64 GB Expandable up to 256 GB via microSD
Camera	Rear: 23 MP Exmor RS with f/2.3 aperture, hybrid AP, and 5x zoom Front: 16 MP sensor with OIS and 8 MP with 120 wide-angle lens
Battery	3,580 mAh battery, Quick Charge 3.0, Battery Care, Qnovo Adaptive Charging
Software	Android 8.0 Oreo
Miscellaneous	Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, USB Type-C, 3.5 mm headphone jack

Pricing & Final Thoughts

The Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra is available as an unlocked device for GSM networks and is priced at $450 in the U.S.. For a mid-range phone, the XA2 Ultra has a lot to offer, with its long overdue design refresh, dual front-facing cameras, fantastic battery life, and a fingerprint sensor that now works in the U.S.. But it’s not priced as competitively as it should be — typical of most Sony phones.

The XA2 Ultra would be more attractive — possibly even a no-brainer purchase — if it were priced at under $400. $450 puts this very close to “budget flagship” devices like the OnePlus 5T and Honor View10. Both are only $50 more and arguably offer better bang for your buck, especially on the performance side. Still, the XA2 Ultra is another solid offering from Sony and a great step forward in the right direction. Unfortunately, like many Sony devices, its price may hold it back from success.

7 hidden Snapchat features for chatting with friends

Chat is built right into the Snapchat name, but the social app’s gesture controls often mean some of those features go unnoticed. For newbies and seasoned Snapchatters alike, this can be a little confusing. Fortunately, Snapchat recently shared some of the app’s hidden chat features — and how to find them. Here are seven hidden Snapchat features to spice up your chats.

Send Video Notes, or custom GIFs shot with your smartphone

Video Notes is a Snapchat variation on the GIF — only these animations are created right from the smartphone camera, allowing you to turn yourself or your surroundings into an animation to send to friends. The tool is a bit hidden, however. Inside a chat, locate the video camera icon. Instead of tapping once, tap and hold to begin recording a short video of yourself with the front-facing camera. Keep the button pressed until you are done recording, and snap chat will automatically add it to the chat as a GIF-like looping video. While recording, you can drag the Video Note to the red X if you want to delete it and try again. (You can also leave Voice Notes by tapping and holding the phone icon while chatting with a friend.)

Launch a video chat

Snapchat isn’t limited to text and photo chats. The app’s video chat feature allows you to connect with friends in real time. The same lenses available in the Snapchat camera can also be used during the video chat if, you know, you need to spruce things up with some puking rainbows or puppy dog faces.

Inside a chat, one tap on the video camera icon (rather than holding for a GIF) will send a video chat request. Once the friend accepts, the chat starts — but you still have access to sending text and photo Snaps too.

Turn your friend — and yourself — into an augmented reality filter.

3D Friendmojis are a recent Snapchat addition, so even the biggest Snapchat fans may not have spotted the feature yet. For the feature to work, you — and your friend — has to have a Bitmoji and have the Bitmoji app connected to your Snapchat account.

To hang out with a friend in augmented reality, open a chat and access the camera. Make sure the camera is on the rear-facing option. Next, tap the screen to open the Lens carousel and find your own Bitmoji and your friends’. These 3D Friendmojis are scalable and moveable just like other Lenses. Snap to send to a friend, or choose the option to add to a Story.

Skip the boring emoji and use a custom one with your face.

Bitmoji’s are for more than just AR hangouts — they can also create custom emojis featuring your face. Again, you have to actually create a Bitmoji in the separate app and then link your avatar to your Snapchat account. Once you do, however, you can turn a number of emojis into a custom Bitmoji. To find the custom Bitmojis, tap the sticker option and search for what emotion or item you’re looking for. When a Bitmoji option is available, you’ll see a smile icon and a simple tap will access the custom option.

Start a virtual party with a group chat

Snapchat isn’t just for one-on-one conversations — group chats allow you to chat with up to 16 people. When starting a new chat or sending a Snap, just add multiple people to the message to create a group. Group members that are currently active will show up with their Bitmoji — to go to a one-on-one chat instead, just tap the username of a friend.

Group Snaps disappear after 24 hours — and once someone sends an image to the group, you can only view the photo once.

Save a chat message

Want to keep a message from disappearing automatically? Inside the chat, tapping and holding on a message will save the note. The feature is only available if the sender’s settings allow, but it is nice for making plans, as you can hang on to information a little longer, such as an address, restaurant name, etc. It’s also helpful just to remember what the heck you were talking about.

Send a Snap with an existing picture

Snapchat has a high percentage of users snapping a photo with the in-app camera, but images you’ve previously shot can be sent on the social network, too. Navigate to where you’d find your saved Snaps, then tap the Memories tab to access the images on your camera roll. Images that weren’t taken with the in-app camera will have a label at the top, however, that lets other users know the shot wasn’t taken inside of Snapchat.

Now go impress your friends by showing them that you know how to hang with the cool kids. Dazzle them with these advanced Snapchat techniques and you’ll be the envy of influencers everywhere.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Why am I the only one that loves Samsung’s AR Emojis?
• Google adds a GIF creator to Gboard, and it’s pretty awesome
• With a selfie, Bitmoji Deluxe makes avatars look more like you
• Make your phone awesome with these Samsung Galaxy S9 tips and tricks
• Everything you need to know about how to use Instagram

Google’s new audiobook features could help make it the best service available

Google is improving the audiobook experience. The company added audiobook features to Google Play only a few months ago, but now its added a few new features to the system that should help make listening to audiobooks through Google a whole lot easier.

There are four new features that should be helpful, including support for Google Assistant‘s routines, better speed controls, and more — and they should be rolling out to Android, iOS, and other Google Assistant-enabled devices like Google Home.

First up is Smart Resume, which is aimed at more fluidly resuming the playback of your audiobook. Sometimes, you need to pause your audiobook — and that may happen in the middle of a sentence. Instead of continuing from that exact point, Smart Resume rewinds to the beginning of a word or sentence, helping remind you of exactly what’s going on in the book.

Next up is Bookmarks. Bookmarks, as the name suggests, allows you to save your favorite moments from an audiobook in the Google Play app. If you’re listening on an Android or iOS device, you can easily tap on the bookmarks button to save that moment.

The third new feature is support for Routines, in the Google Assistant app, which allows you to incorporate the reading of an audiobook into your routines. The example Google gives is that you could create a routine for your commute to work that would tell you about traffic, tell you about events on your calendar, and then start playing an audiobook — all without you having to take your hands off the wheel.

Last but not least, is improved speed control. Now, you can speed up the reading of your audiobook to up to three times as fast, or slow it down to as little as half-speed.

Google also announced it is expanding its ebook and audiobook family sharing to 13 new countries, including the likes of Belgium, Germany, Italy, and more.

The new features show that Google is serious about audiobooks — and could contribute to a growing threat against services like Audible. Sure, Audible is a beloved service, but for die-hard Android users who regularly use Google Assistant, the ability to integrate that functionality into their routine and control it intelligently may be enough to jump over to Google.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Google Play Books now lets you stream audiobooks on Assistant devices
• Sign up for an Audible free trial to score two books and one month totally free
• 100 awesome Android apps that will transform your tired tablet
• Report shows Machine learning is helping make Google Play a whole lot safer
• The 100 best Android apps turn your phone into a jack-of-all-trades

Facebook isn’t the only one tracking you. Here are 5 ways to protect yourself

Right now, Facebook is coming under all kinds of fire for allegedly abusing data as part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. But Facebook is far from alone when it comes to a tendency to track its users as they merrily journey around the internet.

How can you keep your personal data private online? Here are five tools which promise to help.

Mozilla’s Facebook Container

Remember how, in The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter is locked in a cage in the center of a much larger room so that people can communicate with him without the threat of being set upon by a bloodthirsty cannibal? Minus the cannibalism reference, that’s pretty much what a new Mozilla Firefox browser extension does with Facebook.

Called the “Facebook Container” it keeps the social network in its own sealed-off tab so that you can enjoy liking friends’ status updates without Facebook tracking everything you do online. It won’t stop Facebook obtaining certain user data while you’re on Facebook, but it does make it tougher for the company to check out which other websites you visit and create targeted ads accordingly.

Think of it like having a conversation with Dr. Lecter, without him finding out what your plans are for the evening once you’ve left.

Ghostery

Ghostery is a newly open-source privacy and ad-blocking tool for both desktop and mobile web browsers that’s used by around 7 million users. It works by blocking third-party JavaScript “tags” and “trackers” from watching you while you browse through Tumblr blogs about dogs who wear hats (or whatever you do online).

It also lets you see a list of the trackers present on each site, so you can approve or block with a thumbs up or thumbs down, like a privacy-conscious version of Joaquin Phoenix’s character from Gladiator.

Brave

You know that sci-fi “multiverse” trope in which a character is visited by another version of themselves from a parallel universe that’s either worse or better than our own? Brave is pretty much the multiverse Google Chrome — and, in this case, that’s a good thing.

It’s an ultra fast ad and tracker-blocking web browser that’s built on the same Chromium browser as Google’s Chrome, but cuts out the tracking cookies which let advertisers pursue you around the web. As a result, it’s harder for money-hungry markets to build up their anonymous profiles of users.

Heck, it even incorporates some of Tor’s “onion router” technology, which bounces your internet communications through a series of randomized intermediate servers to make you super hard to track. So a fast browser with fewer ads and tracking that makes you feel like an undercover agent? Sign us up!

CCleaner

CCleaner is a bit different to the other tools on this list. It’s not a browser extension for one thing, but rather a piece of software which will remove unnecessary and redundant files from your PC or Mac.

While that includes things like invalid extensions, unused help files and basically anything else which can de-clog your computer, it also banishes temporary internet files, download history and — wait for it! — tracking cookies which may have found their way onto your machine. Run this alongside one or more of the other tools on this list and you’re golden.

uMatrix

A bit like playing a European board game, uMatrix seems mind bogglingly complex when you first give it a go, but a whole lot of depth when you get used to it. It’s another browser extension tracker blocker, but one that’s designed for “experienced users.”

What that essentially means is that all of the decisions are left up to you. Available for Chrome and Firefox, uMatrix gives you a complex control board on which you can choose to blacklist or whitelist different sites, along with different combinations of scripts, cookies, images and more. This probably isn’t the option to use if you’re just searching for a tracker blocker that “just works.”

However, if you’re willing to dedicate a bit of time and effort, this gives you as much control as you’d hope to wield.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best web browsers
• Facebook: Yes, we track your calls and texts, but you told us we could
• Keep on clicking with the 10 best browsers for Android
• Google now allows users to mute those annoying reminder ads
• DuckDuckGo’s new app, browser extension grade websites on their privacy

Facebook isn’t the only one tracking you. Here are 5 ways to protect yourself

Right now, Facebook is coming under all kinds of fire for allegedly abusing data as part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. But Facebook is far from alone when it comes to a tendency to track its users as they merrily journey around the internet.

How can you keep your personal data private online? Here are five tools which promise to help.

Mozilla’s Facebook Container

Remember how, in The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter is locked in a cage in the center of a much larger room so that people can communicate with him without the threat of being set upon by a bloodthirsty cannibal? Minus the cannibalism reference, that’s pretty much what a new Mozilla Firefox browser extension does with Facebook.

Called the “Facebook Container” it keeps the social network in its own sealed-off tab so that you can enjoy liking friends’ status updates without Facebook tracking everything you do online. It won’t stop Facebook obtaining certain user data while you’re on Facebook, but it does make it tougher for the company to check out which other websites you visit and create targeted ads accordingly.

Think of it like having a conversation with Dr. Lecter, without him finding out what your plans are for the evening once you’ve left.

Ghostery

Ghostery is a newly open-source privacy and ad-blocking tool for both desktop and mobile web browsers that’s used by around 7 million users. It works by blocking third-party JavaScript “tags” and “trackers” from watching you while you browse through Tumblr blogs about dogs who wear hats (or whatever you do online).

It also lets you see a list of the trackers present on each site, so you can approve or block with a thumbs up or thumbs down, like a privacy-conscious version of Joaquin Phoenix’s character from Gladiator.

Brave

You know that sci-fi “multiverse” trope in which a character is visited by another version of themselves from a parallel universe that’s either worse or better than our own? Brave is pretty much the multiverse Google Chrome — and, in this case, that’s a good thing.

It’s an ultra fast ad and tracker-blocking web browser that’s built on the same Chromium browser as Google’s Chrome, but cuts out the tracking cookies which let advertisers pursue you around the web. As a result, it’s harder for money-hungry markets to build up their anonymous profiles of users.

Heck, it even incorporates some of Tor’s “onion router” technology, which bounces your internet communications through a series of randomized intermediate servers to make you super hard to track. So a fast browser with fewer ads and tracking that makes you feel like an undercover agent? Sign us up!

CCleaner

CCleaner is a bit different to the other tools on this list. It’s not a browser extension for one thing, but rather a piece of software which will remove unnecessary and redundant files from your PC or Mac.

While that includes things like invalid extensions, unused help files and basically anything else which can de-clog your computer, it also banishes temporary internet files, download history and — wait for it! — tracking cookies which may have found their way onto your machine. Run this alongside one or more of the other tools on this list and you’re golden.

uMatrix

A bit like playing a European board game, uMatrix seems mind bogglingly complex when you first give it a go, but a whole lot of depth when you get used to it. It’s another browser extension tracker blocker, but one that’s designed for “experienced users.”

What that essentially means is that all of the decisions are left up to you. Available for Chrome and Firefox, uMatrix gives you a complex control board on which you can choose to blacklist or whitelist different sites, along with different combinations of scripts, cookies, images and more. This probably isn’t the option to use if you’re just searching for a tracker blocker that “just works.”

However, if you’re willing to dedicate a bit of time and effort, this gives you as much control as you’d hope to wield.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best web browsers
• Facebook: Yes, we track your calls and texts, but you told us we could
• Keep on clicking with the 10 best browsers for Android
• Google now allows users to mute those annoying reminder ads
• DuckDuckGo’s new app, browser extension grade websites on their privacy

When diagnosis time means life or death, NVIDIA’s advanced AI can save lives

We may buy new smartphones and laptops every year or two, but when it comes expensive medical computers, that’s not an option. There are more than three million medical equipment installed in hospitals today, and more than 100,000 new instruments added each year — that’s according Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said at the company’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC). At this rate, it would take more than 30 years to replace all the old hospital equipment. So how do we advance medical care without adding more cost?

Nvidia’s technique is to leverage the cloud to provide a “virtual upgrade” to existing medical equipment. Dubbed Project Clara, the medical cloud is described by Huang as a “medical imaging supercomputer that is a data center virtualized, remoted, and is a multi-modality, multi-user supercomputer.”

It’s an end-to-end solution leveraging the power of Nvidia’s GPU and its cloud infrastructure, allowing medical practitioners the capability to upload data, analyze and interpret data. Herer at GTC this year, Nvidia is showing off how it uses deep learning to make inferences to detect diseases and pathologies at an earlier state, which could save lives.

Early Detection to Save Lives

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang boasts of the GPU’s computing might at GTC 2018.

Early detection is extremely important in the case of sepsis, a disease that claims more lives each year than the combined mortality rates of breast and prostate cancers. It’s also an area of interest to Johns Hopkins University researchers, and Associate Professor of Computer Science Suchi Saria has worked on models to train AI to make early detection a reality. And similar to Huang, Saria’s AI-trained model examines existing patient sensor data without the need for hospitals to purchase more costly equipment to improve early detection and make medical diagnoses.

Deep learning has completely turbocharged modern AI.

This is particularly important because early signs of sepsis are hard to detect, and the condition is often misdiagnosed or ignored until it is too late to treat, Saria said. In fact, for each hour that treatment is delayed — likely as a result of incorrect diagnosis — the mortality rate for sepsis jumps seven to eight percent. Fortunately, though, sepsis is treatable, but only if it’s detected early, Saria noted, highlighting that the condition is the eleventh leading cause of death.

In a case study on sepsis, a female patient was admitted to Johns Hopkins Medical Center for what was believed to be medical pneumonia, Saria said. Doctors administered the usual course of antibiotics, and they weren’t too concerned. Her condition worsens, and on the seventh day, the patient demonstrated visible symptoms of septic shock and was subsequently transferred to the intensive care unit. Once she was in the ICU, her kidneys and lungs began to fail, and the patient passed away on day 22.

“The challenge is that sepsis is extremely hard to diagnose,” Saria said. A study conducted by Harvard University revealed that medical experts weren’t able to agree on early diagnosis of sepsis when presented with symptoms of the condition. However, late stages of sepsis, including septic shock, are easier to identify, but at that point, the mortality rate dramatically jumps.

To make early sepsis detection possible, Saria and her team created a framework called TREWS (pronounced “trues”), which stands for Targeted, Real-Time Early Warning System. TREWS is a class of machine learning that utilizes deep learning to identify symptoms and makes medical diagnosis.

“Deep learning has completely turbocharged modern AI,” Huang exclaimed. “This incredible algorithm that can automatically detect important features out of data, and from this algorithm it can construct hierarchically knowledge representations. And if you feed it more data, it will become more and more robust.”

The earlier the detection, the better.

Making comparisons to a modern smartphone, the Nvidia medical cloud essentially allows hospitals and medical providers to upload existing data and information collected from patients, create models and leverage the power of artificial intelligence. The result is that diseases can be detected earlier, pathologies can be modeled and easier to understand, and scans become richer with more details and information.

The system “leverages high dimensional, noisy health system data to build things that are very patient specific,” explained Saria. “This brings precision into precision healthcare.” Essentially, TREWS takes a look at all the data and “moves from a reactive to a proactive prevention system.”

The challenge with deep learning, Huang explained, is that “it needs a ton of data and a ton of computers.”

In the case of identifying sepsis, Saria relies on historical data from past patients, utilizing a sequential learning framework, and the end result of TREWS is to have the AI system detect sepsis as early as possible and alert doctors, or ask doctors to perform more tests to determine if the patient does in fact have sepsis.

In the example of the patient succumbing to sepsis, AI would have been able to detect sepsis 12 hours before doctors did. But even beyond sepsis, AI could be used to detect all sorts of other medical conditions such as hypertension and heart disease, Saria said.

Inferring More Information

To demonstrate some of the advancements that Nvidia’s hardware and software provides researchers with, AI was used to make inferences to show how a patient’s left ventricle would look in 3D and display data such as the heart’s ejection fraction.

In another example, Philips, makers of ultrasound machines, was able to take a black-and-white ultrasound of a fetus in 2D and reconstruct it into a three-dimensional image complete to give it a more life-like appearance. Additionally, using the GPU’s ray tracing capabilities, the ultrasound scan was visualized as if there was virtual light inside the uterus, complete with some subsurface scattering for tones of flesh.

Outside of Project Clara, Nvidia is also building the hardware needed to make some of these complex processes happen quickly. Medical imaging requires even more powerful hardware, and Huang claims that “the world wants a gigantic GPU.”

To facilitate early disease detection, more comprehensive scans and deep machine learning and artificial intelligence uses, Nvidia introduced the DGX-2 supercomputer at the GPU Technology Conference.

The company states that the DGX-2 is up to ten times faster than the DGX-1, which was introduced a mere six months prior, and the system is capable of replacing 300 dual-core CPU servers valued at $3 million. Essentially, the DGX-2 is an eighth the cost and occupies a sixtieth the space of existing equipment, while only consuming only an eighteenth the power.

“Our strategy at Nvidia is to advance GPU computing for deep learning in AI at the speed of light,” Huang said.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Nvidia shows off the world’s largest GPU at its GTC conference
• With Doctors Report, you can track which illnesses are common in your area
• ‘Uber Health’ lets doctors book patients’ rides to and from the clinic
• Doctors can steer this robot through your guts with an Xbox-style controller
• Nvidia’s GTC keynote was big on business, but ignored gamers and miners

‘Cast’ like a boss with our list of the best Chromecast apps

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends
Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Google’s Chromecast video streamers, including the entry-level Chromecast and the higher-end Chromecast Ultra, are a slick way to wirelessly beam media from your favorite apps and services to that gorgeous flatscreen TV. Yet, while Google has a page listing Chromecast-enabled apps, it’s not exactly comprehensive, and there’s no way to search solely for Chromecast-ready Android or iOS apps.

As such, we’ve compiled a list of our absolute favorite supported apps that take the Chromecast from OK to awesome. Some you’re well familiar with, and some you’ve likely never heard of. If you have the nagging suspicion you’re not taking full advantage of your Chromecast, you’re probably right. Check out our list below, and learn how to “cast” like a boss.

Video streaming

If you’re like most people, the vast majority of your time using your Chromecast will be spent streaming video from the services below. You’ll likely have heard of most of them, but that doesn’t mean you’ve tried them all. Note: If you’re pretty well versed in basic streaming, feel free to scroll further down for deeper ways to enjoy your Chromecast.

Netflix

Available on: Android and iOS

Yes, it’s predictable and you probably saw it coming, but this list wouldn’t be complete without Netflix. It may not be the one-stop shop that it used to be, but Netflix is more than making up for its shrinking library of third-party titles with a staggering amount of original content. From the creepy nostalgia of Stranger Things to the cheerful comedy of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to the crime drama of Narcos, there’s probably at least one show that makes this a must-have for your Chromecast.

Amazon Video

Available on: (see below)

Like Netflix, Amazon has become such a video powerhouse that it wouldn’t be fair to leave it off of this list. There is a problem, however: Thanks to Amazon and Google’s cold war, there is no dedicated Amazon Video app that supports Chromecast. There is a workaround, though, and we have a handy guide to tell you exactly how. The cliff’s notes are, you’ll need a computer and the Chrome browser, which allow you to stream from an open tab while watching Amazon content online.

HBO Go

Available on: Android and iOS

If you subscribe to HBO via your cable or satellite provider, this needs to be on your list of apps to grab. Alongside original series like the megahit Game of Thrones, HBO Go gives you access to a sizeable library of films, from recent releases to classics.

HBO Now

Available on: Android and iOS

If you’re looking for HBO programming, but you don’t subscribe to the network via cable or satellite, this gives you access to everything the service has to offer for a $15 per month subscription fee. Basically, if you’re looking to watch Silicon Valley, Veep, Game of Thrones, and the rest, but don’t want to pay up for cable in order to do so, this is your best bet.

YouTube TV

Available on: Android and iOS

A number of live TV streaming services, including Sling TV, DirecTV Now, and PlayStation Vue are available for Chromecast, but with YouTube being a Google service, it’s a great pick if you’re already invested in that ecosystem. It might not have the most channels, but YouTube TV is a great option for cord-cutters who miss live TV from time to time. If you’re looking for another option, check out our comparison of live TV streaming services.

Twitch

Available on: Android and iOS

Though it started as a way for its users to watch fellow gamers at play, Twitch is increasingly becoming a streaming service for everyone thanks to the introduction of IRL (In Real Life) streams. Whether you’re watching a tense Overwatch match or someone cooking in their kitchen, this app brings a little extra variety to your casting.

Vudu

Available on: Android and iOS

When it comes to buying/renting new and classic movie titles, it’s hard to beat Vudu. Apart from that, the service’s talents include the ability to access your stockpile of UltraViolet movies, and even share the collection with up to five friends. If you don’t yet have Vudu for your Chromecast, it’s time to get onboard.

Google Play Video

Available on: Android and iOS

Another great way to buy video and play it on the tube, Google Play Video has a ton of options, as well as deals for movies, like Inception for $3. Things can get pricey quickly using the service, which is why we prefer subscription packages, but if you need to find a movie or show to play on your TV right now, this is a great way to do it.

Crackle

Available on: Android and iOS

Crackle has a nice selection of older movie and TV content, including some stuff that’s hard to find elsewhere, like featured Seinfeld episodes. Speaking of Seinfeld, the superstar’s new show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, is part of Crackle’s growing lineup of original content, along with Chosen, Tightrope, and Sports Jeopardy.

MLB.TV

Available on: Android and iOS

If you’re a huge baseball fan, MLB.TV is your best friend on the Chromecast. At $130 per year, the premium plan is a pretty pricey affair, but that buys you front-row tickets to every out-of-market regular season game on your TV or device, all season long.

WatchESPN

Available on: Android and iOS

A great app for sports fans, WatchESPN offers easy access to the go-to network for all things sports. You’ll need a subscription, but that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily be shackled to the full weight of a cable or satellite ball and chain. Depending upon your internet provider, you may be able to add a bare-bones, basic cable subscription to your service for a minimal fee. With that in place, the Chromecast will be able to stream ESPN on your television directly from the network’s video servers – no cable or satellite box necessary. If you love SportsCenter and Monday Night Football, that could be worth the dough right there.

Accessing files from your PC and the cloud

While some of the apps here (like Plex immediately below) could fit into the video-streaming section above, this is more about accessing all of your media on your TV. Whether it’s DRM-free movies, home movies, or your photos, these apps help you make the most of all of your media on the big screen.

Plex

Available on: Android and iOS

Got a ton of files stored on a computer or hard drive, but tired of plugging in your laptop to the TV like a caveman? Then Plex is your best solution. The app/server is an excellent way to organize all of your stored video and music files for easy access on Chromecast, as well as other devices that use DLNA like Smart TVs, Blu-ray players, and more. To use the service, just download the app from the Plex site (you’ll need to pay the $5 upgrade for full access), and then start building your library. Recent updates have even added live news, a DVR feature that can remove commercials, and the ability to use cloud storage instead of a home server.

Videostream

Available on: Android

If all that organization, building, and categorizing sounds like more than you want to sign up for, or if you just have a few random video files that you don’t really want to add to a library, Videostream is your super-simple solution. Simply download the app from Google Play and launch it on your PC’s Chrome browser or your Android device. The app will ask what you want to play, and all you need to do is locate the file, choose your Chromecast, and, voila, it’s up on the tube.

Mirroring/photo sharing

Allcast

Available on: Android

When it comes to sending your videos, photos, and music to the TV from your Android device, Allcast is king. The app debuted with Chromecast before being subsequently shut down by Google. Now, it’s back in all its glory, turning your flatscreen into a gallery for all media on your device. The free app puts a 5-minute time limit on pictures and videos, but you’ll have to download it before upgrading to the $5 premium version. If you have an Android device, this is a must-have.

Google Home

Available on: Android and iOS

OK, you already have this if you own a Chromecast, but Google Home lets you do much more than setup and control your Chromecast, it also controls all your Google Home devices. It’s also the best option if you want to mirror your mobile device on your TV — as long as you’re running the Android version.

Google Photos

Available on: Android and iOS

The Google Photos app is one of the best options for backing up your photo catalog, but it also has Chromecast functionality, letting you browse through and display your photos on your TV screen. While other options are available, this is as close to an “official” option as there is, and it’s a great choice, even if you don’t use the backup functionality.

Music

If you have a nice home theater system, you may want to share your favorite online radio app through Chromecast, allowing you to create a wireless jukebox controlled from your device. Or maybe you’ve ditched your CD collection to go all-in on streaming. No matter what you’re looking for, you’ll find some great options below.

Spotify

Available on: Android and iOS

The go-to choice for millions of music lovers, Spotify has a massive catalog of songs to stream spanning every genre. It may not stand up to competitors when it comes to radio functionality, but the music discovery features and sharp interface make it a natural choice when it comes to listening to music in your home theater.

Pandora

Available on: Android and iOS

Spotify might have the advantage when it comes to on-demand, but Pandora remains the top dog when it comes to internet radio. With the addition of its new $10 per month Premium subscription, it edges closer to the competition when it comes to listening on demand, but even if you only listen to the ad-supported free version, it’s a great way to find and listen to new music.

That’s our list of the best Chromecast has to offer so far. There’s a good chance we’ve left out one or two of your favorites, so don’t be shy about letting us know in the comments which apps we missed. We’ll be updating our list as time goes on, and making some more specialized guides in the future as the arsenal expands, so stay tuned.

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Latest Apple patents hint at 3D iPhone effects, flexible batteries, and more

It’s that time of week again! Last week we looked at patents related to an upgraded Apple Pencil, but now Apple has been awarded a fresh set of patents that may give us a few hints into what the company is working on — including patents related to flexible batteries, finding your way around a building, and creating a 3D effect on a 2D display.

Here is everything you need to know about Apple’s latest set of patents.

Flexible batteries

The first patent could help make give your iPhone a much longer battery life. The concept is that flexible batteries can not only be shaped to better fit into a phone, but they can also move depending on the movement of components inside of an iPhone. The flexible batteries are made up of battery cells placed along a flexible substrate, allowing the battery as a whole to bend as it needs.

It will be interesting to see how tech like this can be implemented. For starters, it could be used in standard iPhones to make the most out of the space available for extra battery life. But it could also be used in actual flexible devices, which might change shape depending on their use. Could we see this kind of technology in Apple’s rumored flexible iPhone? It’s certainly possible.

Helping you find doors

Have you ever arrived at your destination only to find that what seems to be the front door is locked — and you have no idea if there is another door around the building? That is what this patent aims to fix. While services like Google Maps and Apple Maps are largely limited to streets and roads right now, they are actively working on ways to bring mapping to the indoors — and Apple’s latest patent shows that includes being able to entry and exit points of a business.

The patent notes that positioning information could be gleaned from a number of different methods — including through GPS, the accelerometer, pedometer, and so on.

Creating a 3D effect on a display

While Apple is rumored to be working on devices like virtual and augmented reality headsets, it looks like the company also wants to make 3D effects a little more accessible to those that simply have an iPhone. To create the 3D effect, the phone would track the positioning of the user’s head — which can be done with the tech in the iPhone X used for Face ID. Using this positioning, the phone can change what the display is showing to make an object appear three-dimensional.

Creating a 3D effect could really help bring ARKit to the next level. ARKit is Apple’s first attempt at augmented reality, and it allows for developers to create AR apps for the iPhone.

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Under Armour: 150 million MyFitnessPal accounts were hacked

Under Armour

The Baltimore, Maryland-based athletic company Under Armour announced its MyFitnessPal exercise app was involved in a massive information breach, with upwards of 150 million user accounts potentially affected. Of the hacked data, the brand says only usernames, email addresses, and hashed password information was breached, so it appears (at this time) that no financial information was compromised — which could be seen as somewhat of a silver lining considering how prevalent hacks and breaches have become.

An Under Armour-affiliated application since 2015, MyFitnessPal is a diet and exercise program designed to not just track daily activity but also to motivate its users. The app had around 80 million users prior to its acquisition, but Under Armour’s already-established network of brand loyalists and gear supporters allowed it to grow to more than 165 million users.

Under Armour reports that it was alerted to the breach on March 25 — and that it occurred in February. Upon learning of its severity, the brand “quickly took steps to determine the nature and scope of the issue.” This includes notifying law enforcement, working with data firms to assist in the investigation, alerting its user base and asking for password changes, and monitoring any suspicious behavior. The brand said it strongly recommends any MyFitnessPal user to immediately change their password as a precautionary measure, even if they aren’t necessarily involved in the breach.

“Four days after learning of the issue, the company began notifying the MyFitnessPal community via email and through in-app messaging. The notice contains recommendations for MyFitnessPal users regarding account security steps they can take to help protect their information,” said Under Armour in a statement. “The company will be requiring MyFitnessPal users to change their passwords and is urging users to do so immediately.”

The statement goes on to recommend that users be aware of any solicitation for them to provide personal information and to avoid, at all costs, clicking on any links or attachments in suspicious emails. Under Armour also provided additional information about how to change a password and how to better safeguard user information, as well as a list of frequently asked questions surrounding the breach.

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Under Armour: 150 million MyFitnessPal accounts were hacked

Under Armour

The Baltimore, Maryland-based athletic company Under Armour announced its MyFitnessPal exercise app was involved in a massive information breach, with upwards of 150 million user accounts potentially affected. Of the hacked data, the brand says only usernames, email addresses, and hashed password information was breached, so it appears (at this time) that no financial information was compromised — which could be seen as somewhat of a silver lining considering how prevalent hacks and breaches have become.

An Under Armour-affiliated application since 2015, MyFitnessPal is a diet and exercise program designed to not just track daily activity but also to motivate its users. The app had around 80 million users prior to its acquisition, but Under Armour’s already-established network of brand loyalists and gear supporters allowed it to grow to more than 165 million users.

Under Armour reports that it was alerted to the breach on March 25 — and that it occurred in February. Upon learning of its severity, the brand “quickly took steps to determine the nature and scope of the issue.” This includes notifying law enforcement, working with data firms to assist in the investigation, alerting its user base and asking for password changes, and monitoring any suspicious behavior. The brand said it strongly recommends any MyFitnessPal user to immediately change their password as a precautionary measure, even if they aren’t necessarily involved in the breach.

“Four days after learning of the issue, the company began notifying the MyFitnessPal community via email and through in-app messaging. The notice contains recommendations for MyFitnessPal users regarding account security steps they can take to help protect their information,” said Under Armour in a statement. “The company will be requiring MyFitnessPal users to change their passwords and is urging users to do so immediately.”

The statement goes on to recommend that users be aware of any solicitation for them to provide personal information and to avoid, at all costs, clicking on any links or attachments in suspicious emails. Under Armour also provided additional information about how to change a password and how to better safeguard user information, as well as a list of frequently asked questions surrounding the breach.

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• Facebook was always too busy selling ads to care about your personal data
• 9 things to know about Facebook privacy and Cambridge Analytica
• Federal investigation into Equifax hack said to wither, even with more data exposed
• Save data, save money: How to reduce your data usage on Android or iOS