The Surface Hub 2 can ’tile’ four units into one big display

Nearly three years after the launch of the original Surface Hub interactive whiteboard, Microsoft introduced the second-generation model on Tuesday, May 15. It won’t be made widely available to businesses until 2019, but Microsoft plans to test the Surface Hub 2 waters this year with “select” commercial customers. Pricing will be “competitive” with other devices on the market, Microsoft says. 

The unit Microsoft introduced on Tuesday sports a 50.5-inch multitouch screen with a 3840 x 2160 resolution. By comparison, the original 55-inch unit has a 1920 x 1080 resolution for $8,999, while the pricier 84-inch sports a 3840 x 2160 resolution for $21,999. That said, Microsoft appears to be shooting for the best of both worlds with a “sleeker, more agile, and more affordable” device for collaboration. 

Microsoft doesn’t mention a larger unit like the current 84-inch model, and there’s good reason why the company may not take this larger avenue: Tiling. With the introduction of the Surface Hub 2 comes the ability to align up to four Hubs together to create one enormous touch-supporting screen. Microsoft’s example shows four digital whiteboards vertically mounted side-by-side, showing one presentation although you can mount them horizontally too. 

“Seeing four of the beautiful Surface Hub 2s lined up together has undeniable visual effect and will have a profound impact on what groups can accomplish together, allowing users to display multiple pieces of content side-by-side,” says chief product officer Panos Panay. “Imagine how much your team could get done being able to work simultaneously across Microsoft Whiteboard, PowerBI, PowerPoint, and a full view video call.” 

Unfortunately, Panay doesn’t get into the hardware specifics. Instead, he says the Surface Hub 2 is easier to move around in your workplace thanks to a collaboration with Steelcase. The company created rolling stands and easy-to-use mounts for better collaboration between team members throughout the building.  

The current models rely on fourth-generation Intel Core i5 (55-inch) and Core i7 (84-inch) processors. For graphics, the 55-inch model uses the CPU’s integrated HD Graphics 4600 component while the 84-inch model sports a discrete Nvidia Quadro K2200 graphics chip. Both have 8GB of system memory and 128GB of storage on an SSD. 

Powering the Surface Hub is Windows 10 Team, a customized version of Windows 10 Enterprise. It’s designed from the ground up to support the large screen and 100-point touch input. It doesn’t have a lock screen, but rather a welcome screen listing specific apps and scheduled meetings generated by the device’s calendar. Anyone can use the hub without the need to log into the operating system itself. 

With the Surface Hub 2, the upcoming device will support multi-user sign-ins. With this feature, teammates can log onto the device simultaneously and share their documents and ideas to create one big collaborative project. Previously, only one individual could sign on at a time to retrieve their files and schedules from the cloud. Presumably the Surface Hub 2 still doesn’t provide means to actually log into the operating system itself. 

“This feature is a truly magical experience,” Panay says, “making collaboration as natural as meeting at a whiteboard.”

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X-ray laser heats water to 180,000 degrees in a fraction of a second

In our busy 24/7 world, no one has time to sit and wait for a kettle to boil, do they? Fortunately, a new demonstration carried out by scientists suggests we might not have to wait those agonizing 3 to 4 minutes each day for much longer — provided that we can get hold of a superpowerful X-ray laser, that is.

Of course, it’s not really intended as a method for boiling water for your tea or coffee so much as it is a fundamental investigation relating to matter.Scientists used this X-ray laser to raise water temperature from room temperature to a massive 180,000 degrees Fahrenheit (100,000 degrees Celsius) in just one millionth of a millionth of a second. The world’s fastest water heater experiment was performed at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It involved firing extremely intense and ultra-brief flashes of X-rays at a jet of water, resulting in an entirely different way of heating H20.

“The method is not really meant for boiling water,” Nicusor Timneanu, a physics and astronomy researcher at Sweden’s Uppsala University told Digital Trends. “X-ray lasers are typically used to investigate the structure of matter on extremely short time scales. Often one has proteins or protein crystals embedded in water, and we have discovered that water is heated in an extremely violent way, by ionizing it and breaking all the bonds. Conventional ways of heating water will give energy to water molecules through heat transfer on a stove [or] vibrations in a microwave. Using X-ray lasers will basically vaporize the water ultrafast. This is exciting for us because we would like to understand how it is vaporized on such short times, using both computations and experiments.”

As for practical applications for vaporizing water, Timneanu acknowledges that there aren’t any that immediately spring to mind. However, that could conceivably change in the future. “Understanding why and how it works helps all projects using X-ray lasers to investigate structure of proteins and or living cells, because they would know what the limitations and challenges are of such techniques,” Timneanu said.

A paper describing this research, “Ultrafast non-thermal heating of water initiated by an X-ray Free-Electron Laser,” was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Doctors in Britain are zeroing in on a universal cure for the common cold

The common cold might get a bit less common if researchers from the U.K.’s Imperial College London have anything to do with it. They have developed and lab-tested a new molecule that could help battle the cold virus by stopping it from hijacking human cells. Although it’s still in the early stages, their solution has been shown to be effective at completely blocking multiple strains of the cold virus. If this is successfully extrapolated to humans, it could help stop burgeoning sniffles in their tracks.

“Rhinovirus is the most frequent cause of the common cold. In healthy people, this is not usually a serious illness, but if you have asthma, COPD, or cystic fibrosis, this can trigger a significant worsening of your symptoms,” Dr. Roberto Solari at Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute, told Digital Trends. “There is currently no vaccine to prevent rhinovirus, and no antiviral drugs to treat it. Like all viruses, RV exploits the machinery of our cells to make new copies of itself and so spread. It has been known since the 1980s that the polio virus, which is a related virus to RV, uses an enzyme from our cells to add a small fat molecule to one its coat proteins. These form the outer shell of the virus. We have made a chemical inhibitor of this enzyme, and found that it blocks the formation of new viruses.”

The challenge with developing a cure to the common cold is that it is caused not by one virus, but by hundreds of variants. While we can develop immunity or resistance to a few of these, it’s almost impossible to do so against all of them. The viruses also rapidly evolve, which allows them to gain resistance to drugs. As a result of these factors, existing cold remedies mainly focus on treating symptoms — such as sore throats and runny noses — rather than the actual virus.

However, the Imperial College research could change that since all strains of the cold virus nonetheless rely on the same protein to make copies of themselves. The molecule could therefore bring an end to the reign of terror of all cold strains — along with other not-insignificant viruses such as polio and foot and mouth disease.

“We are at the preclinical stage,” Solari said. “We have tested it in human cells. The molecule is very potent, but we need to perform additional studies to show its safety and efficacy before it can go into human volunteers.”

A paper describing the research is being published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

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AirFly connects wireless headphones to wired-only devices

Plenty of wireless headphones include a cable to plug into audio gear that doesn’t support wireless, but if you’re using headphones like the Apple AirPods, you’re out of luck when it comes to anything that doesn’t support Bluetooth. There are gadgets that let you use your wired headphones with Bluetooth devices, but what about the other way around? That’s exactly what Twelve South’s AirFly is meant to do.

The AirFly is a compact gadget that features a 3.5mm jack for plugging in to the gear of your choice and a USB port for recharging. Just pair your headphones with the AirFly, and you’re free to use your wireless headphones with anything that features a headphone jack, from the in-flight entertainment on an airplane to your vintage stereo. The AirFly offers up to eight hours of battery life, so while it won’t last through the longest of flights without a recharge, it will last long enough for most use cases.

This isn’t the only device of its kind that we’ve seen. There are plenty of Bluetooth transmitters available that are meant to let you use your wireless headphones with wired-only audio gear but many, like Astell & Kern’s AK XB10, are meant to be used with higher-end gear. These can be nice, but they don’t offer the same compact and easily portable package as the AirFly, and they’re also on the pricey side.

While the AirFly can be used with most Bluetooth headphones and any gear with a 3.5mm headphone jack, Twelve South clearly has a few specific use cases in mind for the product. Fitness clubs and flights are frequently referred to as when you’d want to use the AirFly, and Apple’s AirPods are shown prominently on the product page. If you’re familiar with AirPods, you’ll know they generally prefer to be paired with an iPhone or iPad, so the AirFly product page features a video showing you how to pair your AirPods.

The AirFly is available now for $40 direct via Twelve South. If you’re having trouble getting your AirPods to pair, take a look at our guide showing how to fix the most common AirPods problems.

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Here’s everything we know about Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S4

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Following last year’s launch of the Galaxy Tab S3, rumors have been surfacing about its successor, the Galaxy Tab S4, including that it could be released this July. While there aren’t too many details, various reports and rumored specs have helped us gather information on Samsung’s latest tablet.

Here’s everything we know.

Specs

Key Specs

CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835

Memory: 3.1GB RAM

Storage: 52GB

Screen size: 10.5-inch

Resolution: 2,560 x 1600

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5

Operating System: Android 8.0 Oreo

First spotted by Sammobile, a benchmark-spec listing surfaced for a device called the Samsung SM-T835 — which is most likely the Galaxy Tab S4. The latest report from the site confirms a Galaxy Tab S4 is in the works after the company received a Bluetooth certification. Under product name, the document specifically names the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 as the device that received the certification. Samsung earlier received certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance at the beginning of May.

Underneath the hood, the device is powered by the Snapdragon 835 chipset — which is currently the flagship chip. It’s also an upgrade from the Snapdragon 820 included in its predecessor. While it’s listed as having 3.1GB of RAM, it’s likely that it will actually be 4GB once the device is released. The currently rumored 52GB of storage will most likely be 64GB. As for the camera, it will come with a 7-megapixel front-facing camera and a 12-megapixel rear camera.

As for its operating system, the tablet will reportedly run Android 8.0 Oreo — Android’s latest OS. But the potential release of the tablet comes only one month before the official release Google’s Android P operating system in August.

In terms of additional specs, there’s still no word on what we can expect when it comes to weight, battery, or size of the tablet.

Design

Currently, there aren’t many details on the exact look of the Galaxy Tab S4. It reportedly will have a 10.5-inch display, which is larger than the 9.7-inch screen on the Galaxy Tab S3. Its predecessor also included a Super AMOLED screen, but it’s unclear whether the new device will have the same feature.

But we do have some insight on the display, which is claimed to boast a 2560 x 1600-pixel resolution. In comparison, the Tab S3 screen offers 2,048 x 1,536-pixel resolution.

Release date and availability

The Samsung Galaxy S4 tablet is expected to launch in July of this year. But it’s possible it could also launch as early as next month, especially after having already received its Wi-Fi Alliance and Bluetooth certifications.

Price

There isn’t a price yet listed for the Galaxy S4 tablet. The Galaxy Tab S3 was listed at $600 at launch, so we expect the S4 will most likely be priced within the same range.

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YouTube TV rolls out voice control, incognito mode in new test

Ready for marathon couch potato sessions that require lifting even fewer fingers? YouTube TV’s voice-control feature appears to be finally rolling out as some (but not all) users are spotting the feature. It comes alongside a test that creates an incognito mode for those videos you don’t want saved in your watch history.

YouTube TV’s voice control project isn’t exactly a secret — the website’s help page on the feature has been live for a while now. The Google-owned platform can also use Google Home to control the live TV service with your voice. But the new feature, spotted by Android Police, brings voice control using just the YouTube app. The voice control is for YouTube TV, a paid subscription for cord-cutters that streams live content from more than 50 different networks.

The feature hasn’t yet rolled out to all users, but those that have the early access will spot a microphone inside the YouTube TV app. Tapping that (and giving the app permission to access the microphone) enables the voice remote with a handful of spoken commands. The voice remote allows users to ask for or record a specific channel or show, along with navigating to different areas of YouTube TV.

Another potential feature for YouTube’s original app (not YouTube TV) makes it easier to turn off watch history, another feature spotted by Android Police. The test places a “turn on Incognito” option inside the account settings in the app. With this mode on, YouTube doesn’t track what you’re watching to recommend videos later and watch history is automatically cleared. A pop-up window notifies users before entering the mode that incognito doesn’t necessarily prevent teachers, bosses, or internet providers from learning what you’ve watched.

Incognito is similar to being signed off the account — subscription access isn’t available and the profile picture is swapped with an incognito icon. YouTube already has a similar tool inside the privacy settings, with two sliders to pause watch or search history separately. The mode appears to be an easier way to temporarily stop that tracking and is similar to Google Chrome’s incognito mode.

While a help page for the YouTube TV voice control confirms the feature, YouTube hasn’t yet clarified if the voice control is a test or a slow rollout. The company also hasn’t commented on the incognito mode test.

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Amazon Echo vs. Dot vs. Tap vs. Spot vs. Show: Which should you buy?

Which Amazon Echo is best for you? I have no idea. But here’s how I’d approach each one.

I own too many Amazon Echo speakers. From the original Echo to the Echo Dot and the newfangled Echo Show with its screen and camera. Plus the Amazon Tap, and Echo Look, which you can’t even buy without an invitation. (And you probably shouldn’t but it, for reasons I’ll get into in a second.)

This isn’t a cookie-cutter list of all the Echo speakers and why you should buy them. Hell, a couple I think you probably should stay away from. This is a list of how I see things after having used them all for months and months. Hit the links below to jump on down to the Echo that tickles your fancy.

• Echo Dot
• Echo Dot Kids Edition
• Echo
• Echo Plus
• Echo Spot
• Echo Tap
• Echo Show
• Echo Look

Echo Dot: The best Amazon Echo for starting out

Start simple. If you’re just not sure about this whole Alexa thing and really don’t know how much you’ll get out of an Amazon Echo, it’s best to not spend a lot of money. Start with an Echo Dot.

The Echo Dot costs $49 retail, but it’s not uncommon to see it on sale for as low as $30. And at that price it’s kind of a no-brainer. Buy one and give it a go.

Another pro tip here is to buy more than one at a time. Amazon typically has deals if you buy multiple Echoes Dot at one time — $20 is the usual savings. So if you’re like me and you know you’ll want to stash a few of these around the house, save yourself a few bucks and take advantage.

See at Amazon

The redesigned Amazon Echo: A great mid-range option

Amazon has completely redesigned the basic Echo for 2017. It’s shorter than the original and more squat in stature. And you can get one clad in fabric for $99. That’s not a bad buy, and it’s what I’d recommend for someone who wants to get something better than the Dot, but still not spend more than a hundred bucks. The sound quality is decent for that price. Can you get something better? Yeah. But not for less money.

If you want to spend a little more, though, $119 will get you a new Echo with a wood veneer, or in matte plastic. I’ve found the fabric to be plenty good, though.

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition: You know, for kids

Amazon has a new Echo Dot that is made especially for kids. Or, really, it’s a perfectly ordinary Echo Dot that comes with a nice little case (because kids apparently will be prone to breaking these sorts of things that aren’t really meant to be moved in the first place) — and a free year’s access to Amazon Freetime Unlimited.

That’s the part that actually justifies the $80 price tag. (That’s $30 more than the Echo Dot at retail, and $40 more when it’s on sale.) Amazon Freetime Unlimited gives you (and your kid) access to a whole bunch of kid-friendly content, including books, music, games and more. Plus parents get access to the Amazon Parent Dashboard, which lets you set how long the kid can use any of this newfangled tech. It’ll also block non-kid-friendly content, shut off the Echo Dot at bedtime, and teach your kids to remember to say please and thank-you to not-quite-sentient tech. (We have a feeling that’ll be more important than we realize at some point.)

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo Plus: The best-sounding Echo yet

Amazon decided to keep the tried and true Echo design, but give it better internals. That gives us the $149 Echo Plus. It sounds a little better than the previous-generation Echo, and definitely better than the current 2017 model. It comes in the same matte plastic, but now you can get silver in addition to black and white.

Also new for the Echo Plus is the ability to serve as a smart home hub — if the devices you’re looking to support use Zigbee to connect. (You’re forgiven if you don’t know what Zigbee is — it’s not something an end user should ever have to worry about.) It likely won’t solve all your smart home problems, but it’s a nice little addition nonetheless.

See at Amazon

Amazon Echo Spot: An expensive, but cool, bedside Echo

If you take the Echo Show and shrink it down, this is what you’d get. It’s a $130 Echo clock with a decent (but not overly great) speaker and a 2.5-inch display. You’ll get the time, of course, along with weather information and the same semi-useful headlines as on the Echo Show. Plus it’ll make phone calls and video chat with other Spots or Shows. (Yes, that means there’s a camera pointed into your bedroom.)

This is a great-looking device, but it’s not inexpensive, and it’s only $10 less than the much larger Echo Show, which will be better for the video it can still display.

See at Amazon

Amazon Tap: Smaller, portable, expensive

For whatever reason, this isn’t an “Echo” device. It’s “Alexa-enabled.” OK. (Maybe it’s because the “Alexa” hotword isn’t enabled by default, and instead you’re supposed to push the microphone button.) But no matter. For all intents and purposes it’s an Echo, and it’s meant to be portable.

The Tap has a charging base that allows you to just pick up the speaker and take it wherever you want. And it sounds decent. Not great, but good. Good enough for $129 retail, though? Eh, now Amazon is starting to ask a lot — particularly when you can get a portable battery base for the original Echo for just $50 and get a much better speaker for your troubles. Or you could stick an Echo Dot in this little cordless speaker and get a decent experience — again, for just $50.

Personally, I don’t really see the necessity of a portable Alexa speaker — especially since the speaker itself is going to need to be connected to the Internet at all times for the Alexa stuff to work. And hotspotting to your phone just isn’t something I want to bother with.

Your money probably is better off with any other Echo — or just a traditional Bluetooth speaker.

See at Amazon

Echo Show: Will it ever get better?

I was an early fan of the Echo Show — the potential for an Alexa-enabled device with a large touchscreen is enormous. Unfortunately, it’s yet to pan out in the first few months. The headlines you get are pure fluff, with very little actual news, if ever — and Amazon says it’s done this on purpose.

Then Google decided to not let YouTube videos play on the Echo Show — likely because Amazon’s implementation was doing so without advertising. That killed one of the few reasons I’d actually recommend the Echo Show.

And then there’s the fact that very few Alexa Skills actually take advantage of the display in the first place. It’s a novelty at this point, not a necessity — even though making video calls on the Echo Show is still a great experience.

See at Amazon

Echo Look: How much do you care about what you wear?

There’s a pretty good chance you shouldn’t buy the Echo Look. Unless you really care about fashion — to the point that you want to take a picture of what you’re wearing and send it to Amazon for cataloging and analysis — then you’ll just want to ignore this. For that’s what Echo Look is good at. It’s got a camera and its own app for taking your picture from head to toe, and it does a nice job of highlighting you while downplaying everything else.

From there it lets you flip back through what you’ve worn day after day, and you can have it compare two outfits and decide which it thinks looks better on you. (To varying degrees of success, I found.)

You very much will get out of Echo Look what you put into it. I don’t care so much about what I’m wearing, so this wasn’t really $200 well spent for me. Your wardrobe mileage may vary.

And to be fair, you can’t just go out and buy an Echo Look. You’ll have to tell Amazon you’re interested in it, and then wait for an invitation.

See at Amazon

Updated May 2018: Added the Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition. You know, for kids.

Amazon Echo

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• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Echo Spot review
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• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

See at Amazon

How to use the private browser on Oculus Go

Getting to incognito mode easily

So you’ve got your Oculus Go up and ready and you’re looking into all the cool things you can do with it. One of those things might be Googling the weird questions you think of at 3AM that you never want to show up in your search history for anyone to see. The solution to this is going incognito, and here’s how!

How to open the browser

Finding the browser on your Oculus Go has been made pretty easy for you, and we’re thankful for that.

Select the “Browser” button on the menu located at the bottom of the screen.

Select the “G” icon for the usual Google Browser.

Select the website bar at the top, type in the place you would like to go and hit enter.

Using your controller

Your Oculus Go controller has a couple of different functions. When you want to select something all you have to do is hover over the target and press the trigger button. If you want to scroll through the web page then use the touch pad to glide your thumb over it in the direction you want to move.

Getting to incognito mode

Open a new tab by looking to your left and selecting the “+” symbol on the top.

Select incognito by selecting “Enter private mode.”

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HTC is creating an Android phone that’s powered by blockchain

The phone’s called “Exodus” and will be released this October.

It’s no secret at this point that HTC’s seen better days. The company knows how to make a solid smartphone, but consecutive quarterly losses and the departure of its mobile president has resulted in some pretty rough waters. In an attempt to turn the ship around, HTC has announced that it’s creating a…blockchain smartphone.

According to The Next Web, HTC’s blockchain phone will be called Exodus and is scheduled for a release at some point in October. Exodus will come equipped with its own universal wallet for managing various cryptocurrencies and special technology will allow it to run all sorts of decentralized apps.

Furthermore, all Exodus phones will also act as nodes to manage cryptocurrency trading that takes place through HTC’s own blockchain network.

Phil Chen, (the creator of HTC’s Vive headset) who will be leading the Exodus project, says –

Through Exodus, we are excited to be supporting underlying protocols such as Bitcoin, Lightning Networks, Ethereum, Dfinity, and more. We would like to support the entire blockchain ecosystem, and in the next few months we’ll be announcing many more exciting partnerships together.

HTC’s yet to announce pricing for its Exodus phone, but when it does go on sale, customers will be able to purchase it using, you guessed it, cryptocurrency.

There’s no doubt that HTC’s trying something different compared to most other Android OEMs with Exodus, but I’m not sure this is the product that’ll revitalize the company’s mobile business. Cryptocurrency is an incredibly niche and volatile technology, and basing an entire phone around it seems like something only diehard blockchain enthusiasts will take to.

What do you think about Exodus?

How to use Smart Compose for Gmail on the web

This has potential to be one of the best features of Gmail’s redesigned web client.

A few weeks ago, Google rolled out a redesign for the Gmail web client, introducing a brighter, friendlier new interface with a much larger compose button, smarter inbox management tools, and a handy side panel for miniature apps to your notes and calendar. One of the handiest new features is Smart Compose, which uses Google’s AI tools to predict and write your emails for you — at least, that’s the idea, anyway.

Smart Compose isn’t rolling out to everyone just yet, though, so if you want to get your hands on it early, you’ll have to follow a few extra steps to enable it first.

How to enable Smart Compose

Click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of Gmail.
Click Settings.
Click the checkbox next to Experimental Access.
Click Save Changes at the bottom.

After clicking Save Changes, you should be taken back to your inbox. With experimental access enabled, Smart Compose should be on by default, but here’s how to manually enable it in case it didn’t activate for whatever reason.

Reopen your Settings by following steps 1 and 2 above.
Next to the new Smart Compose option, be sure Writing suggestions on is marked.

How to use Smart Compose

Okay, so you’ve got Smart Compose enabled now. Great. Now how do you use the bloody thing?

It’s actually as simple as just composing an email as you normally would. Once you decide who you’re writing to, Gmail instantly adds a greeting (example: Hi Michael,) in gray text with a small Tab button icon to the right. As you might expect, press Tab on your keyboard to accept the pre-filled option. In Google’s demo at I/O, Smart Compose was able to then intelligently fill out more sentences based on context, inviting the email recipient out for tacos.

Unfortunately, that side of Smart Compose isn’t here just yet. With enough persistence, you can find some words that trigger autocomplete suggestions, but the only words I’ve found thus far that actually work are “hi” — not “hello” — which suggests the recipient’s name, and “how,” which prompts “how are you?”

Remember that this feature is still in early testing, though, and keep in mind that it can only get better with time. Who knows, maybe a year or two down the line, Smart Compose will be able to write out entire conversations so you never have to struggle through an awkward email thread again.

Have you tried Smart Compose for yourself yet? And if so, have you found any other words that it’s able to work with? I’m not particularly talkative in emails, but I like to at least get a little farther than “hi, how are you?” Let us know in the comments below!

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