World’s fastest ever delivery drone could deliver medical supplies in U.S.

Zipline

Zipline is best known for its commercial drone delivery service delivering blood supplies in Rwanda. Now the company wants to step up its life-saving game. To do this, it’s unveiled what it claims to be the fastest commercial delivery drone on the planet. The redesigned drone will allow the company to make up to 500 deliveries every single day.

The new winged drone aircraft weighs in at 44 pounds and is capable of carrying cargo weighing up to about four pounds. It boasts a top speed of 128 kilometers per hour, an impressive cruising speed of 101 kilometers per hour, and a maximum round-trip range of 160 kilometers. To put those figures in perspective, it means flying up to four times faster than the average quadcopter drone, while serving an area 200 times as large.

“Our first-generation aircraft and logistics system allowed us to create the first and only drone delivery service in the world, which is helping to save lives in Rwanda every day,” Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo said in a statement. “We’ve taken everything Zipline has learned making thousands of life-critical deliveries and flying hundreds of thousands of kilometers and redesigned our entire system and operation from top to bottom. The new aircraft and distribution center system we’re unveiling today will help Zipline scale to meet the needs of countries around the world — including the United States.”

That’s right: Zipline is planning to expand to the U.S. It has applied to participate in a trial organized by the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). The trial is the FAA’s new Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program, designed to allow state and local governments, alongside private companies, to experiment with deploying drones. Zipline’s U.S. operations are expected to commence by the end of 2018. The FAA’s findings from the program will ultimately inform later rules about commercial drone usage.

“Billions of people on earth lack access to critical medicine,” Rinaudo continued. “In East Africa, Zipline’s drones bring people the medicine they need, when they need it in a way that reduces waste, cost, and inventory while increasing access and saving lives. We’ve been hard at work to improve our technology and are ready to help save lives in America and around the world.”

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A.I. helps Oscar the chatbot answer 75 percent of travel questions

Air New Zealand

Chatbots are only programmed to understand so many things but one travel chatbot named Bravo Oscar Tango has used artificial intelligence to go from answering just seven percent of questions to 75 percent. Air New Zealand recently brought Oscar the chatbot to the U.S. and Canada after first launching the chatbot in New Zealand and Australia.

Now, Oscar is used for more than a 1,000 conversations a day on both the airline’s website and mobile app. Because Oscar is built on artificial intelligence, the more the program is used, the more accurate and conversational Oscar gets.

“Artificial intelligence has not only given our customers another quick and convenient way for them to interact with us and get travel information, but Oscar has also freed up our customer service agents to focus on handling more complex queries. Oscar has gone down well in Australasia and we’re now excited to release him to North America. We’re hoping the Americans and Canadians find Oscar as useful as the Kiwis and Aussies have,” Avi Golan, the chief digital officer at Air New Zealand, said in a statement.

Oscar is designed to answer some of the airlines most frequently asked questions, all designed into an instant, chat-like platform. As users type, the chatbot will also suggest questions. If Oscar needs clarification, he’ll ask and pop-up buttons allow travelers to skip the typing. Answers also can include links to pages with related information. 

The airline says the bot both helps save time and offers a more personalized experience. Oh, and he can also sing and tell jokes.

Oscar isn’t the first travel-focused chatbot either. Lufthansa also has a bot named Mildred. And Expedia’s chatbot can help travelers out through Skype. Hostbot even allows Airbnb hosts to create automated travel chat questions. 

Air New Zealand’s flight network includes New Zealand, Australia, the South West Pacific, Asia, North America, South America and the U.K. Along with Oscar, the airline’s mobile app for iOS and Android also includes real-time flight data, digital tickets, boarding passes, and flight booking. The app will even help travelers determine when to pack and pre-order coffee from a lounge area.

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Google Voice opens up testing for data-only VoIP calls

Google Voice has long been helpful for receiving phone calls regardless of the device you’re using. That’s assuming you want a conventional call, though — it can be a pain if you’re traveling and face roaming charges, or in those moments when you want to start a call away from your phone. Relief is at hand, however, as Google has started enlisting users to beta test for a data-only calling option. Sign up and you can soon use cellular data or WiFi for calls from Voice on Android or the web (iOS is coming), whether or not you’re using a phone.

There are caveats. The beta feature can’t use incoming call recording or transfer options when you switch on data. Key Bluetooth audio functions are missing (including button control to answer or hang up), and Obihai voice-over-IP devices won’t work. This is a test in the truest sense, with known major bugs and an expectation that you’ll provide feedback. All the same, the beta could be worth a try if Voice’s use of the conventional phone network frequently creates hassles.

Via: Android Police

Source: Google Voice Help Forum

EV startup Byton expands US foothold with LA facility

New auto company Byton made a splash at CES when it debuted its autonomous EV SUV concept with a cutting-edge entertaining passenger experience. After effectively launching the company at the trade show in January, it’s opening a new ‘Future Lab’ facility in Los Angeles that will develop user experience for the nascent automaker’s future lineup.

The company has grown rapidly since opening its first North American office, a headquarters in Silicon Valley, back in December. That facility will keep developing the ‘Smart Intuitive Vehicle’ (SIV) concept shown off at CES, which was “85 percent” done at the time. Their first vehicle debuted with advanced UX features, like facial recognition cameras to unlock doors, a dashboard-spanning display, gesture controls and a tablet in the steering wheel console.

The company also hired two executives: Chad Harrison, a 22-year veteran of the automotive industry who will be Byton’s VP of product-line management, and David Twohig, who will be its chief auto engineer after experience at Alpine and Renault Sport. The company has grown to 300 employees, according to a press release.

Source: PR NewsWire

Apple CEO Tim Cook Visits Alabama, Discusses MLK, Coding, and More in Student Symposium

Apple CEO Tim Cook visited Alabama today to attend a banquet hosted by the Birmingham Metro Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), where he received the 2018 Human Rights Award for advocacy for equality and safety in the workplace. Cook is an Alabama native who grew up in Robertsdale and attended Auburn University.

The event was meant to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. King was the founding president of the SCLC in 1957.

It’s an honor to be in Birmingham celebrating Dr. King’s life today. “Let us all hope that…in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.” pic.twitter.com/GN6T54hSqx

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 4, 2018

Ahead of the banquet, Cook also spoke at a student symposium at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham focusing on civil rights, education, and innovation, and details of what he had to say were shared by Alabama news site AL.com.

On the topic of Martin Luther King Jr., Cook said his teachings “are timeless.” “If you listen to him today, you feel like he is speaking about today,” said Cook. He went on to explain that it’s important to reflect on the work done by King, and the ways we can continue his legacy.

Full of hope this morning, hearing from hundreds of Alabama students who are carrying Dr. King’s legacy into the future. pic.twitter.com/NDPimMl10A

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 4, 2018

As for students who attended the symposium, Cook encouraged them to “change the status quo” with a quote from Dr. King: “It’s not the behavior and the actions of evil people that we remember at the end, but the silence of the good people.” Cook said that’s a quote that has always resonated with him.

“It is a special time in your life,” he said. “This is a period of time where you can change the status quo. Now is the time to do it. The world needs you more than ever to not be silent.”

After Dr. King, the conversation shifted to coding. As Cook has said multiple times, he believes coding is an “essential language.” Apple’s Swift coding curriculum is rolling out in community colleges in Alabama as of today, and Cook’s trip also involved a stop at the Lawson State Community College.

Great visit @LawsonStateCC. Alabama’s @ACCS_Education is the first to roll out the Swift Coding Curriculum statewide, and students here are learning new skills to show the world what’s possible. pic.twitter.com/3HQKuOOeGr

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 4, 2018

Cook told students at the symposium that everyone in school should have “multiple years” of coding before graduating because it’s important to “understand the possibility of software” even for those who don’t plan to pursue a computer science-related job.

He also said that with students in the U.S. being pushed into four-year colleges, vocational paths have dried up, leading to the need for a rebalancing. Not everyone needs to attend a four-year college, he reportedly said, and focusing so much on four-year colleges has left us without enough people with the skills to build things.

Cook’s final words were to encourage students to fight for change. Young people are “not stuck with old dogmas” and don’t accept “it’s never been done before” or “it can’t be done,” he said. “This is a great beauty of being young,” he told students.

All of Cook’s comments and additional details on the symposium can be found over at AL.com.

Tag: Tim Cook
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Bitmain’s $800 Ethereum ASIC miner could help bring GPU prices down

Bitmain has announced a new dedicated mining rig slated for release in a few months time, which has the potential to upturn the existing Ether mining market. If it turns out to be as powerful and efficient as Bitmain claims, it could well help combat the still ongoing problem of sky-high graphics card prices.

Bitmain is the world’s leading manufacturer of mining hardware for Bitcoin and a number of other altcoins. Its application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners typically offer much greater performance per watt than general-purpose hardware, and that could well be the case with its new E3 miner. Although it’s not slated to release until July, by the numbers, it would be as powerful and more efficient than multi-GPU rigs.

The Antminer E3 is said to deliver a hashrate of 180 mega hash per second with a power consumption of 800w. Bitmain claims that these numbers are conservative for now and expect them to be greater when the miners debut later this year. In comparison, a stock clocked RX 580 produces 25MH/s for 175w. Although multiple-GPU mining rigs tend to have various clock and power-draw tweaks to make them more efficient, they still aren’t likely to hit the same levels as the Antminer E3. At least in theory.

The price tag could be the killer part of this equation though. At $800, the E3 miner is about as expensive as just one pair of RX 580 graphics cards, or three GTX 1060s. You aren’t getting anywhere near the same sort of hash rate for that sort of money with consumer graphics cards.

The response to this new hardware announcement has been mixed. While Bitmain has restricted purchases to five per customer to ward off scalpers, there has been a wave of negative comments on the original Facebook announcement post. Many highlight that selling mining hardware months in advance of shipping is unethical because of the shifting value of cryptocurrencies.

One of the biggest criticisms of the new Ether miner is that Ethereum developers are very much against the idea of ASIC miners being used to mine it. The cryptocurrency was designed to subvert the ability for ASIC miners to dominate the workload. Although it has been acknowledged that eventually ASIC miners would be developed to mine Ether, Ethereum developers may now take action through a hard-fork or fundamental change to Ethereum itself, to prevent ASIC miners from being used. Were that to happen, newly purchased Antminer E3s would become effectively useless.

Regardless, the E3 miner is likely to be popular — purportedly the first batch is already sold out — even if the value of cryptocurrencies continues to fall across the board.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Panera Bread’s data leak might affect more than 37 million customers

It’s getting to the point where no matter what kind of business you conduct, there is a very real risk of seeing your personal information leaked to nefarious parties. So far, hackers have gained access to banking, credit reporting, health insurance, email, and seemingly just about every other modern circumstance where your data is saved in a database. The latest: That soup and salad you ordered online at Panera Bread might have cost you some peace of mind.

According to KrebsOnSecurity, the food chain’s website was leaking information for a minimum of eight months, specifically the names, email addresses, physical addresses, birthdays, and last four credit card numbers for customers who placed online orders. The company has more than 2,100 restaurants throughout the U.S. and Canada, and that amounts to a huge number of potentially affected accounts.

The leak was first brought to Panera’s attention in August 2, 2017, by security researcher Dylan Houlihan. For whatever reason, the system was only taken offline on Tuesday, April 3, leaving a full eight months during which anyone with the appropriate knowledge could have scraped off the information and used it in a variety of potentially damaging ways. As KrebsOnSecurity indicates, the database’s format is such that customers could be easily searched and identified using any of the data.

As Houlihan put it, “Panera Bread uses sequential integers for account IDs, which means that if your goal is to gather as much information as you can instead about someone, you can simply increment through the accounts and collect as much as you would like, up to and including the entire database.” In Houlihan’s opinion, Panera did nothing to address the issue during the entire eight-month period.

The number of customers affected by the breach is uncertain. While Panera has stated that only 10,000 accounts were compromised and that the company requiring a valid account login to access the information would mitigate the problem, further information indicates that the number of affected customers could number in the millions. In fact, greater than 37 million customers records could be involved.

As always, if you are potentially affected by this data breach, you will want to keep a close eye on all of your credit, banking, and other activity. If you see anything suspicious, then contact the relevant companies immediately. You might also consider investing in an identity theft protection service that can help you keep an eye out for any privacy concerns.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Salivating over the new XPS 15 2-in-1? Here’s how you should configure it

The XPS 15 2-in-1 is a computer we like a lot. It’s not perfect, but it’s forward thinking and risk-taking. It also delivers some impressive gaming performance in the shell of a sleek, thin laptop.

But not all configurations offered are ones you should buy. Most notably, we’d recommend staying away from the 4K model, which just happens to be what we received as our review unit. Using the 4K XPS 2-in-1 wasn’t a bad experience by any means — after all, the display is absolutely gorgeous, as to be expected.

However, there are two significant issues with it. The first is battery life.

Though it has a 75 watt-hour battery inside, our tests showed it had very mediocre battery life. It only lasted around five and a half hours in our video loop test, which is half that of the average competitor. For a machine that is sold as a “do it all” laptop, you’ll be disappointed when it quickly dies at a coffee shop without an outlet. We don’t know exactly how much better the 1080p version will be, but we’d guess it’ll get at least a couple more hours per charge.

Then there’s the price.

Even if the 4K model didn’t significantly hinder the battery life, it still won’t be worth the extra $400 for most people. In the case where it provides an overall lackluster experience, it’s really not worth the extra money. Throw in the fact that you probably won’t be able to play many games at 4K anyway — even desktops struggle to do that — it’s a clear cut case. Don’t buy it.

If you do decide the XPS 15 2-in-1 is for you, which configuration should you get? Well, most of the other options offer solid value for what you get. Since the same AMD Radeon RX Vega M graphics component is standard across the board, you’ll get the most gaming value out of the least expensive models offered.

The starting price is a $1,300 configuration, which has a slower Core i5 processor and less RAM, but you can still expect decent gaming performance out of it. There isn’t currently an option out there that competes with this level of configuration, unless you compromise the overall look and feel of the laptop (as in a cheap gaming laptop), or are willing to pay a lot more (as in the Surface Book 2).

The base model XPS 15 2-in-1 has a slower Core i5-8305G CPU and only 8GB of RAM, but for the price you’re still getting a quad-core processor and a very capable GPU. The $1,300 is not currently listed on Dell’s website, but it goes on sale on April 23. We think it’s worth the wait.

We think the slightly more expensive mid-tier options a good value as well. You should stretch for those if you plan to use the XPS 15 2-in-1 for productivity work, because you’ll need the added RAM and larger hard drive. Remember that Dell offers some customization, so you can jump up the hard drive on the base model. However, you must buy the $1,800 version if you want 16GB of RAM.

On the whole, less is more when buying the XPS 15 2-in-1. It’s an extremely capable, and experimental, 2-in-1 even in its most basic configuration, which means there’s less reason to go all-out. If you do need more, we recommend going for RAM and hard drive upgrades, but avoiding the wonderful, beautiful, and very, very expensive 4K screen.

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Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 vs. Surface Book 2 15

Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 represented the height of 2-in-1 innovation when it was introduced in October 2015. Since then, it’s gone through a few revisions and today’s Surface Book 2 maintains the innovative tear-off display while incorporating some seriously high-performance components.

Dell’s XPS 15 2-in-1 is also a highly innovative 2-in-1, and in fact Dell considers it to be essentially an experimental platform. Dell is innovating in different areas than Microsoft, however, making the XPS 15 2-in-1 a lot thinner and lighter and with a focus on controlling heat and managing the experience in a relatively tiny chassis.

Given that they’re both innovators, our Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 and Surface Book 2 15 showdown attempts to answer the question: Which machine’s idea of innovation results in the most usable 2-in-1?

Dell XPS 15 2-in-1

Surface Book 2 15

Dimensions
13.9 x 9.2 x 0.36-0.63 (in)
13.5 x 9.87 x 0.568-0.90 (in)

Weight
Starting at 4.36 pounds
15-inch starts at 4.2 pounds

Keyboard
Full-size backlit keyboard
Full-size backlit keyboard

Processor
Eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8705G
Eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8650U

RAM
Up to 16GB
16GB

Graphics
AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL
Intel UHD 620
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

Display
15.6-inch IPS Display
15.0-inch PixelSense Display

Resolution
Full HD (1,920 x 1,080, 141 PPI)
4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160, 282 PPI)
3,240 x 2,160 (260 PPI)

Storage
Up to 1TB PCIe SSD
Up to 1TB PCIe SSD

Networking
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1

Connectivity
USB-C with Thunderbolt 3 (x2), USB-C 3.1 (x2), 3.5mm combo jack
USB-A 3.0 (x2), USB-C 3.1, Surface Connect, SD card reader, 3.5mm combo jack, Xbox Wireless built-in

Webcam
1080p webcam
1080p webcam

Operating System
Windows 10
Windows 10

Battery
75 watt-hour
90 watt-hour

Price
$1,300+
$2,500+

Availability
Coming Soon
Now (Microsoft Store)

Review
7.0 out of 10 stars
8.0 out of 10 stars

Design

Visually, the XPS 15 2-in-1 bears a striking resemblance to the smaller XPS 13 2-in-1 and to the rest of the XPS notebook line in general. That’s a good thing, because the combination of aluminum and black carbon fiber is conservative yet attractive — and it’s functionally pleasant as well with the soft-touch keyboard deck.

The XPS 15 2-in-1 is also incredibly thin, and in fact Dell calls it the “smallest, thinnest 2-in-1” in its 15-inch class at 0.63 inches. It’s also relatively light at 4.38 pounds, at least compared to most 15-inch 2-in-1s. Making a machine so thin that packs in such serious power (see the performance section below) required Dell to use some innovative materials to keep heat under control. Mainly, that meant enlisting some space-age Gore material that sits in between the hot components and users’ skin to keep things tolerable.

For its own part, the Surface Book 2 15 also packs in some innovation. It’s in its third iteration without too much changing in its design or appearance, with the same silver-grey magnesium chassis with the unique fulcrum hinge the gap between the display and keyboard that you may or may not dislike. But it maintains its very different approach to the 2-in-1 format, where the display containing the actual PC tears off into a shockingly thin and light 15-inch tablet.

The entire unit remains relatively thick (0.9 inches at the hinge) compared to the XPS 15 2-in-1, but surprisingly its a bit lighter at 4.2 pounds. Thermal concerns aren’t quite so profound for the Surface Book 2, because unless you’re pushing the discrete GPU located in the machine’s base component, all of the heat is in the display and thus far away from a user’s skin when in clamshell mode.

Both machines are examples of the kind of innovation that pushes the market forward. We think that the Surface Book 2’s overall design remains both less compromising in a search for infinite thinness and yet it still makes for a better tablet experience — and that’s the crux of the 2-in-1 equation.

Winner: Surface Book 2 15

Performance

The Surface Book 2 15 is built around the fast and efficient eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8650U processor. That’s a speedy yet power-sipping 15-watt processor that can ramp up for higher-end productivity tasks and use significantly less power while running less demanding tasks. But the Surface Book 2 15 has a trick up its sleeve — it packs a legitimate gaming GPU, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, into its base, making it a contender as both a serious 1080p gaming system and a hardcore video editing machine with the right software.

The XPS 15 2-in-1, on the other hand, utilizes the even newer Intel Kaby Lake-G processor, which is an eighth-generation quad-core processor coupled with an AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL GPU. That’s a combination that’s less about efficiency and more about pure performance, and compared to most other convertible 2-in-1s it’s a much more potent solution.

The XPS 15 2-in-1 competes well against the Surface Book 2 15 in terms of processor power. However, it falls short in graphical power compared to the GTX 1060 tucked away in Microsoft’s 2-in-1.

Winner: Surface Book 2 15

Keyboard, Mouse, and Pen

The Surface Book 2 is like most 2-in-1s in that it offers multiple ways to get information into the system. And it’s excellent at doing so across the board, with an excellent keyboard offering copious amounts of travel (1.55mm) and a precise feel, and a Microsoft Precision touchpad that might very well be the best performer this side of a MacBook Pro. The newest Surface Pen is also a standout performer, with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, tilt support, and unmatched responsiveness among Windows 2-in-1s.

Input is another area where Dell felt the need to come up with something unique thanks to the XPS 15 2-in-1’s incredibly svelte chassis. And the company’s response is a first-ever: a keyboard that uses magnetic levitation (maglev) to help overcome a short 0.7mm key travel that would normally result in a very shallow feel. We found the result to be snappy and loud with an abrupt bottoming action — whether it’s great or not will come down to personal tastes.

The XPS 15 2-in-1’s touchpad is a little more pedestrian and it’s also a good Microsoft Precision version with solid gesture support (although we noted that the buttons were a little loose resulting in some unintended clicks). The Dell Premium Active Pen also enjoys 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and tilt support, and it even attaches magnetically to the notebook just like with the Surface Book 2.

These two 2-in-1s are mostly equally matched, even down to supporting Windows 10 Hell0 (the Microsoft with an infrared camera and the Dell with a fingerprint scanner located in the power button). However, although we laud Dell’s use of cool technology with the maglev keyboard, the Surface Book 2 15’s keyboard is just a better experience. Microsoft takes this round as well.

Winner: Surface Book 2 15

Connectivity

With the Surface Book 2, Microsoft finally embraced USB-C. However, the company still didn’t pack in Thunderbolt 3 support, making it more limited in terms of things like display and external GPU support. There are also two USB-A 3.0 ports, a Surface Connect port, an SD card reader, and a 3.5mm combo jack. That’s all you get to go along with the usual 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios.

With the XPS 15 2-in-1, Dell is all-in on USB-C — the machine has four of them, in fact. Two support Thunderbolt 3 with a full four lanes of PCIe, meaning that you’ll be able to plug in an array of displays and connect to an external GPU if the AMD Radeon RX Vega graphics are insufficient. Add in a headset jack, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth, and that covers connectivity.

While Microsoft gets points for legacy USB-A support, the lack of Thunderbolt 3 is a weakness. Dell wins this one.

Winner: Dell XPS 15 2-in-1

Display

Both of these 2-in-1s pack in beautiful displays. However, they take different routes in getting there.

The Surface Book 2 offers a 15-inch display that utilizes the excellent-for-productivity 3:2 aspect ratio that’s taller and shows more vertical data at once. It’s also pin-sharp at 3,240 x 2,160 (260 PPI) resolution with awesome contrast and brightness that lends real depth to text and graphics. It doesn’t have terribly wide color gamut or great color accuracy, though, and so its better for number crunchers and writers than it is for photo editors.

Dell offers two display options, a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 or 141 PPI) display and a 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160 or 282 PPI) panel. We tested the latter in our review unit, and found it to be one of the best displays we’ve ever experienced in a notebook, hands-down. It offers a wide color gamut (96 percent of AdobeRGB), excellent brightness, and class-leading contrast, with awesome sharpness that’s made for Netflix 4K binging. Only its color accuracy is average.

Usually, Surface machines win the display category. Not this time — while the Surface Book 2 has a lovely display that beats most competitors, it can’t keep up with the XPS 15 2-in-1.

Winner: Dell XPS 15 2-in-1

Portability and Battery Life

The XPS 15 2-in-1 is significantly thinner and smaller than the Surface Book 2 15, and so it has that in its favor. And it’s within a couple of ounces of the Surface Book 2 in terms of overall weight. That makes it easier to toss into a backpack and carry around from workplace to workplace. It’s not as good as a tablet compared to the Surface Book 2 15’s tear-off display, but that’s true of all 360-degree convertible 2-in-1s.

However, the Surface Book 2 packs in 90 watt-hours of battery compared to XPS 15 2-in-1’s 75 watt-hours. And, Microsoft’s 2-in-1 uses the highly efficient U-series Intel Core processor with its lightweight integrated GPU. Apparently, it sips power compared to the Intel Core “G” processor in the XPS 15 2-in-1, because the Surface Book 2 15 simply blows the Dell away in terms of battery life.

In each of our battery tests, the XPS 15 2-in-1 performed poorly. It lasted for just over two hours in our Basemark test, compared to the Surface Book 2 15’s almost seven hours. It lasted for around four and a half hours browsing the web, compared to Microsoft’s almost 16 hours. And the Dell couldn’t even manage six hours looping a local video, whereas the Surface Book 2 15 lasted for over 20.5 hours.

We like svelte chassis in our notebooks, but battery life matters too. The XPS 15 2-in-1 just doesn’t have enough battery capacity to match its high-powered components, and Microsoft simply blows Dell out of the water in this category.

Winner: Surface Book 2 15

Availability and Price

The Surface Book 2 15 usually loses in price comparisons, unless it’s being compared to Apple’s MacBook Pro. It starts out relatively high, at $2,500 for a Core i7-8650U, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD, and goes all the way up from there. At its most expensive, it’s a stratospheric $3,300 for all of the same components except for a 1TB SSD. That’s a lot of money, which you’re paying for the powerful components and the ability to tear off the display.

The XPS 15 2-in-1 is also firmly in premium territory, although it doesn’t scale up quite as high as the Surface Book 2 15. It starts at $1,300 for an Intel Core i5-8305G (which sports the same AMD graphics), 8GB of RAM, a GB 128SSD, and a Full HD display. At the high end, you’ll spend $2,750 for an Intel Core 8705G, 16GB of RAM, a 1TBGB SSD, and that luscious 4K UHD panel.

These are both expensive machines, but Microsoft’s pricing is out of this world. At its lowest configuration, the XPS 15 2-in-1 qualifies as a cheap way to get some decent gaming performance.

Winner: Dell XPS 15 2-in-1

The Surface Book 2 takes the prize for its better performance and battery life

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

These are two seriously innovative and high-powered 2-in-1 notebooks. We like both of them, sometimes for very different reasons, but it’s undenable that they’re both good looking, fast, and fun to use.

However, Microsoft simply packed in faster components, at least for gamers and creative types that can use that GTX 1060 GPU, and the Surface Book 2 15’s battery life puts the XPS 15 2-in-1’s longevity to shame. More power and better battery life? We’ll take it. And when we want to use our 2-in-1 as a tablet, Microsoft’s design wins then, as well.

Editors’ Recommendations

• LG Gram 15Z980 vs. Microsoft Surface Book 2 15
• Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 vs. Microsoft Surface Book 2
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Hearts are breaking because Tinder is broken and it’s Facebook’s fault

The love seekers of the world are collectively freaking out now that Facebook has ruined your chance at finding your soulmate. We’re talking, of course, about Facebook’s recent changes to how third-party apps are able to interact with the social network. It’s a much-needed change in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica privacy debacle, but alas, it’s apparently having some unintended consequences, like locking people out of their Tinder accounts.

But wait, you say — how could Facebook possibly affect my Tinder account? Well, the problem is that in order to sign into Tinder, you must sign into your Facebook account. In fact, there is no way for you to even create a Tinder account if you don’t have a Facebook profile. So now that Facebook is tweaking the way in which it works with these independent apps, things are getting a bit hairy.

If you try to log into your Tinder account, you will likely receive an error message that reads, “Facebook Permissions. Tinder requires you provide additional Facebook permissions in order to use a Tinder account. This information is used to create fuller profiles, verify authenticity and provide support.” Basically, it would appear that Facebook has revoked Tinder’s permissions, which also means that it’s revoked your ability to meet and potentially fall in love with new people. Even if you follow Tinder’s prompts, it seems that the issue is not resolved, and you’ll remain unable to swipe left or right.

Twitter, of course, wasted no time in raising the alarm. Tons of Twitter users have complained about being unable to access their accounts, and have pointed the finger squarely at Facebook. One user tweeted, “Facebook’s API changes just broke Tinder. It throws you into an endless login loop. Bravo to Facebook for being considerate of their only valuable product.”

Facebook’s API changes just broke Tinder. It throws you into an endless login loop. Bravo to Facebook for being considerate of their only valuable product. pic.twitter.com/QbJA1uTi0v

— Daniel Sinclair (@_DanielSinclair) April 4, 2018

Others have tried tweeting directly at Tinder in hopes of receiving an answer, though this not seem to be a particularly successful way forward. Some folks have even attempted to delete and reinstall both apps, alas, to no avail.

We reached out to Tinder and Facebook alike in hopes of shedding some light on this issue and will keep up with any updates.

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