Board 350 passengers in 20 minutes? Facial recognition passes testing at LAX

Lufthansa

Boarding a flight at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) may no longer require digging out that boarding pass and passport — all you need is your face. On Monday, March 19, the Lufthansa Group airline announced the launch of biometric boarding at LAX. The announcement comes after the airline successfully tested the tool and boarded about 350 passengers on an A380 in only 20 minutes.

The self-boarding gates use cameras with facial recognition to photograph each passenger’s face. The image is then compared to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) database in real time. Once the system has a match, the computer lists the passenger as boarded, without requiring a boarding pass or passport. The whole process, Lufthansa says, takes only a matter of seconds.

The technology was developed through a partnership with Amadeus, along with collaborating with the CBP, LAX Authority, and Vision-Box. Because the program uses CBP data, the airline doesn’t have to develop their own biometric database.

“CBP is excited to work with air travel industry partners like Lufthansa to demonstrate how facial biometrics can provide a range of traveler benefits for a secure and seamless passenger experience,” John Wagner, Deputy Executive Assistant Commissioner, Office of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said in a statement.

As air travel continues to grow, airlines are looking for ways to speed up the often tedious process of boarding a plane. Lufthansa approached the problem looking at speeding up the boarding process, but the airline isn’t the only company looking at facial recognition as a security tool. Delta Airlines began testing a face-ID bag check at Minneapolis-St. Paul last summer. In Dubai, passengers walk through an 80-camera virtual tunnel with facial recognition to speed up the security process.

Lufthansa plans to expand the self-boarding gates to additional airports in the U.S.

“Biometric boarding has enormous potential to make the travel experience easier and less stressful,” Amadeus’ Guido Haarmann, managing director for airlines in central Europe, said. “Last year, over 1.6 billion passengers boarded planes using Amadeus Altéa technology. Amadeus’ mission is to develop technology that creates better journeys for travelers worldwide, and it is a pleasure to be working with our established partner Lufthansa to bring this innovative technology to market.”

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Guns N’ Roses alum Matt Sorum rocks beyond blockchain to fight labels, YouTube

The rock star inside of musicians like former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum never dies — it just diversifies. His travels in the past reinforced the rocker lifestyle, like the time in Venezuela when he was pushed on stage to perform following a drug binge. Then there’s the pre-fame trip to Hawaii that infamously led to a drug smuggling mission. A trip to Brazil a few years ago, however, reflects his growth and had a much more positive result: Sorum’s involvement with a company that aims to shake up the music industry with cryptocurrency.

That trip, six year ago, connected Sorum with Pablo Martins and the team behind his latest venture. Artbit is a distributed ledger platform, similar to the blockchain platform that supports most of the cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The system allows artists and fans to share and monetize works quickly by eliminating third-party intermediaries like banks or business managers.

Sorum is aiming to shake up the music industry again, this time with the help of Artbit and cryptocurrency.

That’s made possible by smart contracts, computer protocols written into a platform’s code that can self-execute the set terms of a contract once specified conditions are met. So, if someone downloads a song an artist has placed on Artbit, a smart contract could automatically send payment to the artist, with no work necessary on the artist’s part.

Artbit is powered by Hashgraph, a newly released algorithm, which Sorum ardently proclaimed to be “250,000 times faster than Blockchain.”

His life may be more megabits than powder grams these days, but Sorum still has indelible tales of his wilder days as a member of Guns N’ Roses. The 57-year-old musician spoke to Digital Trends about Artbit from South by Southwest, as well as his upcoming autobiography about his rocker days, and the dire future of the album.

I read a little about Artbit and it seems like a very interesting platform. How does this fit into your background as an artist?

Well, you know, I have to start somewhere, right? I came to Hollywood in the late ’70s, trying to find my place. Trying to find where I fit, sleeping on couches, eating Top Ramen, and heading out to connect with people. Obviously, that’s way before we had a way to be able to connect online. There was no internet or social media to be able to find other people to connect with. We just had to do that face-to-face.

When I think about artists that are out there, and they’re all trying to do the same thing I did. [They] ask me, “Well, what do you think I should do to be successful? I want to do this for a living. I want to be able to make a living.” I saw what’s happening in the blockchain, crypto world, and I started researching the interesting correlation that could have.

I met this really interesting team out of Brazil. Pablo Martins is a visionary. We started coming up with ideas, and the team and Artbit was born. This is based on giving back to the community, artists, and how to build a network that’s going to really be … not only supportive of the artist, but supportive of the audience.

The audience deserves accolades as well — as we all know as musicians, we wouldn’t even be here without fans. Do they ever get any thanks for that? Not much. Why not? Why not include them?

Artbit [says it] will provide tools to manage the business side. You have decades of experience on the business side of the music industry. What kind of tools will Artbit give these artists?

On the business side within the Hedera platform [which is built on Hashgraph], they’re going to, with smart contracts, be able to decide everything they do or don’t want to do from the beginning. So there’s going to be a layer of brand element that’s going to come into play. …

In Artbit, you’re going
to be able to have a branded AR filter that
will enable you to have product placement if you want it.

For instance, on YouTube, you have no control of what commercials go across your video. First of all, if you have a million views, you only make about a thousand dollars. So, as these ads are streaming across your video before people are able to watch them, that’s kind of force-fed to you. You’re not allowed to say, “I don’t want this ad or I don’t want that.” As a bigger artist, you’re allowed to say what you want to be affiliated with, because you have more power. But as a young artists, you don’t. In Artbit, you’re going to be able to have a branded augmented reality filter that will enable you to have product placement if you want it.

Let’s say you don’t like beer or you don’t like meat, or you don’t like a certain kind of tennis shoe. You’re going to have the option to monetize your content by adding those prospective brands. So that’s one element. The community can do the same thing.

Now, in that smart contract, all that information will be on Hashgraph and the Hedera platform. The way the information is traded, it’s already there. So, it won’t allow certain things because the smart contract’s already been written into the platform. It doesn’t have to be a conversation, other than in the data. The data tells what is going to be allowed and doesn’t want to be allowed.

Michael Segal

Let’s say an artist is going to put this particular song up, and they’re going to offer 20 percent of my publishing, now, to the community. You now own a piece of it. You can have it in your [digital] wallet. Now, let’s say that song gets picked up for something now or monetized in a different situation. Automatically through the Hedera Hashgraph platform you will get paid. You don’t have to ask for the money. It’ll instantly be delivered to you because that’s how much information … the public ledger can hold. And that’s all done through one simple transaction, on the spot.

This is not the only thing that you’re working on these days. I know you’re working on an autobiography. You said it’s going to be the juiciest of juiciest stories we’ve ever heard.

[Laughs] That’s a good word. Juicy. Right?

[Laughs] Yeah. I asked myself, “How are these the juiciest of juicy stories? We’ve heard a lot from those days.” Can you hint toward any of the things you feel are going to be explosive that we haven’t heard about before?

Well, I think I’ve got better stories than everybody else. [Laughs]. It’s been a very cathartic experience, but at the same time, I realized I’m not a bitter guy. … Sometimes rock ‘n’ roll books come off that way. It’s always the typical, he did this, and that guy did this, and that’s why the band broke up, and I don’t look at it that way at all.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images

Scott Dudelson/Getty Images

I look at it like it’s all part of the process. It gets people from point A to point B. We go our separate ways and everyone does different things that offer good reasons. So, as I’m writing it, I’m learning some of the reasons that things went a certain way were maybe based on a decision that I made. But most of it is intuitive. Then, I made mistakes along the way, and that’s OK, we all have. We all do, and that’s what gets us where we are now.

Do you have a release date for the autobiography? Have you had any contact with anybody to tell them to prepare for what’s to be inside of it?

[Laughs] No, not yet. [Laughs] We’re in the early stages. We’re at the first draft. So, it’s probably going to be another nine months.

What can you remember about what it was like being on that meteoric rise with Guns N’ Roses?

“I always said [being in Guns N’ Roses] was like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.”

I always said it was like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. It was like like the fast-moving roller coaster. You’re on the ride, there’s no way to really get off.  You’re on that bullet train. It was a rocket ship, and as much fun as it was, it was still scary at times. So, you were being driven, you weren’t the navigator, you know what I’m saying? [Laughing] I go, “Wow, I can’t believe I made it through that.” It really sets the tone for the rest of my life.

Talking with you, you seem like a calm and levelheaded individual. I’ve heard that drummers usually have to be the ones that are the levelheaded ones in a group. Were you ever that guy in Guns N’ Roses? The guy who calms everyone down.

I don’t know if you’ve read the research, but they’ve said it’s scientifically proven that drummers are the smartest of the bunch. [Laughs].

[Laughs] I’m going to have to look that up.

You can ask Dave Grohl, he’ll tell ya. Don Henley. Phil Collins. Lars Ulrich is the leader of his band. Larry Mullen [Jr.] runs U2. So, you know, guys with vision like that, we’ve all been in bands, and we’ve seen the mistakes.

The drummer is the foundation. He might be the foundational guy, right? You just try to keep everything together. That’s been my life. My nickname is Matt the Mediator.

Have you yourself invested in any cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or anything like that?

I’ve done okay. I’ve done okay. I dabble. I look at all of this with wide-open eyes. That’s where the concept of Artbit came. I wanted to see about how can we build a community, how can we build a network, and how can we use cryptocurrency to monetize that.

Then I saw Bjork launch her album on a platform through Blockchain, crypto. She offered her album in crypto and gave back audio coins, and gave back all of this stuff. People like Bjork have always been visionaries, in my mind. They’re always way ahead of their time. When I see people like that moving in that direction, I’m like, “OK, there’s something here. Something tangible. So, let’s go dive in and check it out.”

To dive into something so new and unregulated like cryptocurrency takes a level of fearlessness that we’ve recently found out you have a lot of. You recently spoke about your days, pre-fame, when you smuggled drugs. What made you get into it and take such a risk?

[Laughs] Yeah, I know. It’s part of the story, right? Then when people read that, they’re like. “Hey, I don’t know about this guy,” or whatever. When we’re young, we do crazy stuff. Yeah, I was always a risk-taker. The issue with the world, and people that say they really want to do something and they have a dream to do something, a lot of times, they won’t take the chance or risk if they have other responsibilities.

When I was coming up, I didn’t have anything to lose. I really only had one focus. That was to make it as a musician.

When I was coming up, I didn’t have anything to lose. I really only had one focus. That was to make it as a musician. Now, I look at that as like “Wow, what a blessing that I was able to believe in myself and to be able to see it to fruition.” I took other risks that could have caused me much harm. But, I look back and I go, “Would I do that now? Hell no!” I’m much older and much wiser, but I’m able to go into other areas. As we get older we all grow, and hopefully we mature and don’t make as many mistakes, and we learn from our mistakes …

With something like Artbit, it kind of falls into the lane of streaming services in the sense of disrupting the music industry. What implications do you think something like Arbit will have on record labels?

Well, they can come use us if they like. They probably will come to us just like they come to any other social network. It saves them having to get out and hit the pavement. Maybe some of them are down here at South by Southwest looking for the next thing. I think a very large percentage are sitting back in their offices and scouring the internet, getting Google alerts of what’s this and what’s that.

When we build it, they will come. I really feel that’s going to be part of our story down the line. Then, we’ll make the rules, because when you are in that position, you make the rules. It’s not the other way around. Typically, when you’re successful and people start knocking on your door, then you go, “Ah, yeah, let me think about it. OK, well, make us an offer.”

It almost seems like Artbit could help make record labels obsolete.

Well, they’ve been struggling, haven’t they? There’s still a very, very small percentage of artists that get recognized by the political aspect of what it takes to get there. What is it to get a record deal anymore? Most musicians and artists that I know just say, “Forget it … There aren’t any record deals anymore.” Yes, there are. But not like the old days. Not like when you would put a band together, and A&R guys would come out and see you, and they’d sign 20 bands that month. That’s not happening. They don’t have the money to do it. When they do sign you, they take half your merch [merchandising revenue], half your touring, and everything else that’s involved in your brand.

So they’re trying to monetize their entertainment business by taking everything you’re about while you’re out doing the real hard work, which is touring. … We never shared that kind of stuff with the labels back in the day. We never shared touring. We never shared merch. They only had rights to the album. But now, an album is only a way to a means. I’ve even heard iTunes is going to pull the download aspect soon. You won’t be able to download. It’s only going to be streaming.

Do you think that’s going to be a good future for music? It seems like there’s this battle between the album and the stream. Albums are becoming a dying art in favor of playlists. Do you think there’s a good future for the music industry should it be streaming only?

Yeah, I mean, I miss albums. I buy vinyl, because vinyl is something I love listening to. They shouldn’t allow people to buy one song at a time. Obviously, we’re going to have that at Artbit. But when I heard there were going to be no more download capabilities [on iTunes], that was really strange. I’m like, “Wow, it’s getting interesting now.” I have to wait to see what that’s going to look like.

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Stanford’s VR experience puts you in the shoes of one of California’s homeless

I’m homeless, on a bus from Palo Alto to San Jose, California. It’s late at night, and a man sitting a few rows behind me is staring in my direction. He’s creeping me out, and he’s moving gradually closer all the time. While this is going on, another person on the bus is trying to maneuver away my backpack with their foot. If I keep my eyes on my belongings, the man behind me moves closer. If I stare at him to scare him off, I risk losing my few possessions. What do I do?

This is one scene in a virtual reality experience created by members of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL). Called Becoming Homeless: A Human Experience, it’s intended to make you experience life through the eyes of one of the myriad homeless people who live in California. In the first scene, you have to sell off items in your apartment in a futile attempt to make rent after losing your job. In the next, you’re confronted by a cop after being discovered sleeping in your car. The third scene is the one described above, punctuated by spoken accounts of the struggles of homeless folks riding the bus in an effort to stay warm.

“We set out to create a VR experience that would examine whether it’s possible to use the technology to make you feel empathy for people that you perceive as being different from you,” Elise Ogle, project manager at VHIL, told Digital Trends.

Becoming Homeless has been the subject of a large-scale study carried out by Stanford, including more than 500 participants, which Ogle said is “unheard of for VR studies.”

“When you compare virtual reality to traditional media like TV and print, VR has a greater impact on people’s empathy,” she continued. “It can connect people to a particular environment more. It’s this kind of psychological presence, where you feel like you’re actually there. Real-life experiences can have a really big impact on people in terms of their attitude change.”

While there are potentially problematic elements to the overall concept (another homeless VR experience was roundly criticized last year), the idea that technology can be used to promote empathy is nonetheless a fascinating one. Will it solve the problem on its own? Absolutely not. Could it insensitively be used to create “poverty porn” in the form of a gamified system? Yes, it could. But, designed sensitively, we see no reason tools such as this can’t help raise awareness of particular issues.

Becoming Homeless was demonstrated over the weekend as part of the Global Education and Skills Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It’s also available to download via Steam.

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Look out, Alexa and Google Assistant — Watson Assistant is coming for you

Alexa and Google Assistant may be helping you to run your household today, but now that IBM Watson has officially joined the smart home game, it might be game over for some of these competitors. Watson, the supercomputer that has won Jeopardy!, helped Marchesa design a dress, and analyzed tennis matches at the U.S. Open, is now coming to your home — but not just your home. At IBM’s annual Think conference, the company unveiled the Watson Assistant, an intelligent helper that you could soon find not only in your house, but in your car, office, hotel, or just about anywhere else.

One of the key differentiating factors between Watson and all other smart assistants is its status as a white label product. That means that there’s no specific way in which to use Watson Assistant — there is no set wake word, nor a dedicated smart speaker in which the assistant will live. Rather, companies will be able to leverage Watson however they see best, making it easier to add actions and commands. And perhaps most importantly, every individual application of Watson Assistant will keep its data to itself, which means that large companies can’t, as The Verge notes, “pool information on users’ activities across multiple domains.”

As IBM’s vice president of Watson Internet of Things, Bret Greenstein, explained to The Verge, “If you start running the entire world through Alexa, it’s an enormous amount of data and control to give to one company.” But Watson Assistant hopes to avoid that situation.

The artificial intelligence tool is already in action across the world — for example, if you travel to Munich Airport, you can see a Watson Assistant-powered robot that will give you directions and gate information. BMW is also leveraging the technology to rate an in-car voice helper. “We looked at the market for assistants and realized there was something else needed to make it easier for companies to use,” Greenstein told CNET.

Of course, as impressive as Watson has proven itself to be, it still has quite a bit of ground to make up when it comes to incumbents in the space like Alexa and Google Assistant. But IBM notes that Watson Assistant was developed exclusively in response to customer requests for this functionality. Particularly business customer requests. Greenstein noted that companies dealing with sensitive information will likely be more attracted to Watson than existing assistants because Watson gives users more control over both customer information and the customer experience.

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Hackers could have credit card numbers of 880,000 Orbitz users

Hackers may have gained access to as many as 880,000 credit cards by hacking into the Orbitz website. On Tuesday, March 20, the travel-booking company, owned by Expedia, shared that it had found evidence of a hacker gaining access to user data. The company says they don’t yet have evidence that the information was actually taken, but the hacker access means user data could have been stolen.

The hack could include data from users that used the platform between January 1 and June 22, 2016. Partner programs using Orbitz have a much wider date range for the hack, extending to Dec. 22, 2017. Orbitz said that, along with billing information, the hack also could have exposed other personal data including names, emails, phone numbers, billing addresses and gender. The company also said that the investigation suggests that travel itineraries, passport information, and social security numbers were not part of the hack.

The hacker gained access to an older version of the website, the company said. The current booking platform is not part of that breach, Orbitz said.

Orbitz discovered the hack earlier in March and since has launched an investigation to determine what data could have been affected. After discovering the vulnerability, the company said it hired a forensic investigative firm and also involved law enforcement.

In a statement, Orbitz said, “We deeply regret the incident, and we are committed to doing everything we can to maintain the trust of our customers and partners.”

For those potential 880,000 users that could have compromised data, the company is offering a year of credit and identity monitoring at no charge. The company is notifying users that could have been affected by the breach but travelers that booked within those dates can also call 1-855-828-3959 in the U.S. or 1-512-201-2214 outside the U.S. for additional information.

The breach isn’t the first time hackers have targeted travel platforms. Sabre announced a hack last year on the hotel booking platform. In 2011, a TripAdvisor hack compromised user emails, but the booking platform didn’t collect payment information from users.

Orbitz is owned by Expedia Inc. and offers online booking for flights, accommodations, rental cars as well as options like cruises and complete travel packages.

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An A.I. distinguishes between biological males and females based on a smile

A new artificial intelligence system has found an accurate way of distinguishing between images of biological males and females — and all it needs to do is to take a quick look at their smile!

Developed by researchers at the U.K.’s University of Bradford, the system is based on a previously discovered insight that the facial muscles move differently when men and women flash a grin. By incorporating this into an image recognition system, the researchers were able to create an A.I. that is 86 percent accurate in distinguishing between the sexes.

“We have studied extensively how people smile, from video clips and with the help of the computer,” lead researcher Professor Hassan Ugail told Digital Trends. “From such detailed analysis, we are able to confirm that the smile of women and men are distinctly different. For example, females tend to have broader or wider smiles and their smiles tend to last longer.”

The algorithm works by analyzing 49 distinguishing features of the face, such as the way that the mouth, cheeks, and areas surrounding the eyes move when a person smiles. Once developed, it was tested on video footage of 109 people smiling to test efficacy.

“The technology can be used as part of a toolkit for person identification,” Ugail continued. “For example, police might want to identify a person from a blurry CCTV footage where the person in question is physically unrecognizable — say, from the facial features, color or the shape — but the facial emotions, such as the smile, may be somewhat clear. In such cases, knowing the person’s gender would immensely help the police to narrow down their search.”

Potentially far more useful than that is the suggestion that smiles may not just break down into male or female categories, but could actually be a unique biometric identity. If it turns out to be correct that each and every one of us smile slightly differently, it might be incorporated into a future Face ID-style biometrics security system which asks users to flash a quick grin in order to unlock their phone or other mobile device.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal The Visual Computer.

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An A.I. distinguishes between biological males and females based on a smile

A new artificial intelligence system has found an accurate way of distinguishing between images of biological males and females — and all it needs to do is to take a quick look at their smile!

Developed by researchers at the U.K.’s University of Bradford, the system is based on a previously discovered insight that the facial muscles move differently when men and women flash a grin. By incorporating this into an image recognition system, the researchers were able to create an A.I. that is 86 percent accurate in distinguishing between the sexes.

“We have studied extensively how people smile, from video clips and with the help of the computer,” lead researcher Professor Hassan Ugail told Digital Trends. “From such detailed analysis, we are able to confirm that the smile of women and men are distinctly different. For example, females tend to have broader or wider smiles and their smiles tend to last longer.”

The algorithm works by analyzing 49 distinguishing features of the face, such as the way that the mouth, cheeks, and areas surrounding the eyes move when a person smiles. Once developed, it was tested on video footage of 109 people smiling to test efficacy.

“The technology can be used as part of a toolkit for person identification,” Ugail continued. “For example, police might want to identify a person from a blurry CCTV footage where the person in question is physically unrecognizable — say, from the facial features, color or the shape — but the facial emotions, such as the smile, may be somewhat clear. In such cases, knowing the person’s gender would immensely help the police to narrow down their search.”

Potentially far more useful than that is the suggestion that smiles may not just break down into male or female categories, but could actually be a unique biometric identity. If it turns out to be correct that each and every one of us smile slightly differently, it might be incorporated into a future Face ID-style biometrics security system which asks users to flash a quick grin in order to unlock their phone or other mobile device.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal The Visual Computer.

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Galaxy S9 Tips: First 9 things to do with your new S9 or S9+

If you’re one of the many people picking up a new Galaxy S9 or S9+ in recent days, then you might be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff this phone can do. If you can imagine a phone doing it, chances are it’s a feature on the latest Samsung flagships. So where do you start? Where are the crucial dials and levers you need to pull to get the most out of your new S8?

Well, we’re here to help — we’ve wrapped up the first 9 things you should do as you get started with your shiny new Galaxy. There are some hidden features and settings, as well as some not-so-hidden functionality that you’ll definitely want to avail yourself of as you set up your new phone. Check out our video above, and remember to subscribe to Android Central on YouTube so you don’t miss the rest of our GS9 coverage.

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OnePlus 5T: News, Specs, Problems, and next-gen rumors!

This is everything you need to know about the OnePlus 5T!

OnePlus has settled into a six-month cycle for its phones: in the summer, its flagship gets a new design language and number, while in the winter that same phone gets tweaked and the letter “T” added to stand out from its predecessor. OnePlus continued this tradition in late 2017 with the OnePlus 5T replacing the OnePlus 5. This is everything you need to know about the OnePlus 5T!

Check out our reviews

We’ve had our hands on the OnePlus 5T since its unveiling, and we’ve spilled plenty of digital ink to cover it. Check out our video review above, and read our written reviews linked below:

OnePlus 5T review: Come for the value, not the excitement

OnePlus 5T India review: Hitting all the right notes

Flagship specs for less

OnePlus’s mantra has always been offering flagship-level internals coupled with minimalist software, all for significantly less than similarly-specced devices. The OnePlus 5T has all the right stuff you’d expect for late 2017: a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, a 6-inch, 18:9 screen, and a dual-camera. Check out the full spec sheet below!

More: OnePlus 5T: Should you pay extra for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage?

About those cameras…

LG has used a secondary lens for wide-angle shots, Huawei uses its second lens for black-and-white shots, while OnePlus is using the second lens in the 5T to better capture low-light shots. Really low light. Under 10 lux, which is is where most phone cameras start to struggle. The user doesn’t need to do anything to change which lens is in use; the camera software will automatically pick based on the ambient light.

Unfortunately, low-light photos from the 5T aren’t particularly good. Andrew noted his photos had a good bit of grain and strange artifacts from the camera software trying to smooth things out. In fact, the main camera took better low-light shots than the secondary lens. There’s no OIS in either lens, which would have gone a long way towards making those low-light shots better. The OnePlus 5T takes great shots when there’s ample light, but don’t count on it for your concert photos.

More: OnePlus 5T gets numerous camera improvements and December security patch

You can unlock it with your face

Android phones have been able to unlock with the user’s face since the Ice Cream Sandwich era, but the feature was never particularly consistent or secure. OnePlus has solved the first problem with the 5T, with a face unlock system that is ridiculously fast. There aren’t special camera sensors like on the Galaxy Note 8 or the iPhone X, and the face unlock on the 5T isn’t as secure as it is on those phones. But it can’t be fooled with a photograph, which should be secure enough for most users. Even better: OnePlus has started rolling this feature out to its older devices, back to the OnePlus 3.

More: OnePlus 5 now has Face Unlock with OxygenOS Open Beta 3

There’s a Star Wars edition

The Force is strong with OnePlus fans, at least in India. The company released a special edition of the 5T in India for ₹38,999 ($600), and it looks gorgeous. Rather than the matte black used on most 5T’s, the Star Wars edition has an all-white color scheme with a sandstone finish. Accenting the white paint job are the Star Wars and OnePlus logos, Alert Slider, power button, and volume rocker all in red.

More: OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition launches in India for ₹38,999 ($600)

There’s also a Sandstone White version

For those of you outside India, don’t fret: OnePlus now makes mostly the same device, just without the Star Wars branding. You get the same sandstone texture, the same pure white color, and the same red accents. Be careful with it though: Alex found the device got dirty after only a few days. The phone regularly picked up black and blue coloring from being in his jeans pocket. While it’s not difficult to clean for now, be wary of the long-term durability of this coating. The Sandstone White OnePlus 5T is available for the same $499 that the black version is.

More: The OnePlus 5T in Sandstone White is gorgeous, and probably won’t stay that way for long

Oreo is here

One oddity (or maybe not) with the OnePlus 5T is that it launched with Android 7.1.1 Nougat, rather than the more recent Android 8.0 Oreo. That changed in early 2018 though: after some trialing in its Open Beta program, OnePlus has released Oreo to the stable channel of its software. Users can expect staple Oreo features such as Notification Channels, picture-in-picture support and better support for autofill applications. Additionally, OnePlus has tweaked its quick settings design, added features to the built-in gallery, launcher and other applications, and included the January 2018 security patch.

More: OnePlus 5T gets first public Oreo update with Oxygen OS 5.0.2

Compared to other devices

The OnePlus 5T’s main selling point is its lower price for mostly the same experience compared to the big names in the Android world, and it holds up favorably. Against the Pixel 2, you get a larger screen and battery size, similar light software experience with some genuinely useful additions to vanilla Android, and (most importantly) a headphone jack. Things look even more favorable when comparing the 5T against the Pixel 2 XL, which has the same screen size and dimensions but costs $350 more. Where the 5T is lacking is water resistance — there isn’t any — and the camera. Again, the 5T has a good camera, but the Pixel 2 crushes it in low-light photography. If those are important to you, it may be worth the extra money for Google’s flagship.

The 5T is also a great phone for Windows 10 Mobile converts. The lighter software will be easier to adjust to than heavier versions of Android that come from Samsung and LG, OnePlus’s features don’t get in your way if you live in Microsoft’s ecosystem, and the lower price is also welcome.

More: Should you get the Pixel 2 or OnePlus 5T?

More: Why the OnePlus 5T is the Android for Windows phone converts

Pixel 2 XL vs. OnePlus 5T — Which is the better buy?

Samsung Galaxy S9+ vs. OnePlus 5T: Here’s what the extra $300 gets you

Check out our forums!

Want to know more about the OnePlus 5T? Our forums are full of awesome users who can answer your every question.

More: OnePlus 5 & 5T forums

This post was updated in March 2018 with information regarding the Oreo release for the OnePlus 5T.

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Qualcomm wants to make ‘XR’ a thing with its future-forward developer kit

Whatever we call it, Qualcomm wants to make sure its name is on the box.

As the lines between virtual reality and augmented reality blur, thanks to things like phones capable of doing both and apps starting to live in both spaces, it has been suggested in multiple places the name of these concepts be blurred together into Cross Reality or “XR” to address the spectrum. It’s an idea Qualcomm seems to be a big fan of as it announces the creation of a new Snapdragon 845-based developer kit to help build the future of these devices.

I spent a few minutes with this new reference design, and it paints a fairly clear picture of what Qualcomm thinks the next year or two of these experiences will look like.

Sharper displays, faster processing

This year’s developer kit is a standalone VR headset powered by the Snapdragon 845 processor, which Qualcomm designed to be generally more capable and less power-hungry than previous models. In VR environments, this extended capability means Qualcomm can focus on improving on the graphics headed to displays as well as the way the outside world is tracked through the headset.

In this new VRDK, Qualcomm is using a form of Foveated Rendering as well as Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) tech to make the experience more immersive. The SLAM tech enables the headset to map a 20ft square room with no problem and allow the user to walk around as though the headset was externally tracked, while the new rendering method will make the center of the lens have the sharpest graphics while the rest of the lens area blurs a little.

Qualcomm has paired the Snapdragon 845 with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, as well as Tobii eye tracking sensors and a USB-C port for charging. The headset itself is Six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) so the tracking is similar to a Daydream Standalone headset or a Vive Focus. Like those headsets, the controller that comes with the developer kit is only Three Degrees of Freedom (3DoF) so it’s limited to rotation right in front of you instead of naturally moving like a Vive or PlayStation VR controller. Qualcomm says it is willing to work with partners to add 6DoF controller support, but that feature is not the immediate focus of this release. The Ximmerse controller that comes with the kit looks and feels very similar to the Samsung Gear VR or Oculus Go controller, with its trigger on the bottom and trackpad-style button up top.

The big focus for this headset is enhancement of current experiences instead of bolting on a ton of new features. Qualcomm is working towards sub-millimeter accuracy with its inside-out tracking thanks to the SLAM enhancements to the outer cameras and making sure there’s room for developers to really push the envelope on things like eye tracking. The Tobii partnership with Qualcomm allows for native eye tracking in the headset, making it possible for you to glance at an option to select it or have your eyes move naturally in a social VR environment.

Unity through Viveport

There’s a software component to this Qualcomm VRDK, but it comes from the creators of the Vive Focus experience. Qualcomm has partnered with HTC to allow its partners to use the Vive Wave SDK on headsets made by third-parties, and with that comes big opportunities for both companies. In China right now, Qualcomm is working with many different organizations through its HMD Accelerator Program to help create many different standalone VR headsets. Instead of offering a wholly unique software experience in each headset, Qualcomm and HTC are encouraging the use of Viveport in these headsets as the store. This gives developers a single store to build games for, and gives manufacturers the ability to say the headset comes with many games at launch.

In a market where Google and Oculus have had very little success, Viveport has flourished and will continue to do so with this partnership. It means there are going to be a lot of potentially very good VR headsets that won’t come to the US anytime soon, but there’s a lot of room for growth in this part of the world where VR headsets have continued to grow rapidly in popularity.

Gazing into the future

With the HTC Vive Focus, Oculus Go, and Lenovo Mirage Solo on the way this year, Qualcomm was already a dominant force in standalone VR headsets. This new developer kit and plan to dominate in China confirms the push forward into the next year with little competition.

As standalone headsets continue to grow in popularity around the world, Qualcomm has cemented itself as the default name to look for the right hardware to build from. And, for consumers, that means there’s a very good chance all of your standalone headset options in the foreseeable future are going to be powered by Qualcomm.