Video: OnePlus 6 Marvel Avengers Edition unboxing and hands-on

OnePlus is continuing its partnership with Disney in 2018 with the OnePlus 6 Marvel Avengers Edition. The phone is limited to India and China — two of the company’s largest markets — and comes with a custom kevlar pattern underneath the glass body. Other design touches include the Avengers logo at the back, and gold accents for the alert slider.

Overall, the Avengers edition looks pretty spectacular, and the packaging includes a lot of goodies as well. Hit up the video above to take a look at what the OnePlus 6 Avengers edition is all about, and be sure to check out our full review of the OnePlus 6.

• Android Central on YouTube
• This is the OnePlus 6 Marvel Avengers Edition
• OnePlus 6 India review
• OnePlus 6 video review
• More on the OnePlus 6

Xiaomi rolls out a payday loan service called Mi Credit in India

Xiaomi’s first financial service in India delivers instant loans to young professionals.

Xiaomi offers a wide range of services in China, and the company is now looking to do the same in India, its second-largest global market. After rolling out Mi Music and Mi Video earlier this year, Xiaomi is now wading into financial services with Mi Credit, a lending platform that makes it easier for MIUI users to get a line of credit.

Xiaomi says it is partnering with India’s KreditBee to offer instant loans — from ₹1,000 ($15) to ₹1,00,000 ($1,500) — with the service aimed at young professionals. KreditBee relies on KYC authorization to disburse the loan, and you’ll have to link your bank account with the service to receive the funds. Once you link your bank account, the loan amount will be disbursed within 10 minutes.

Xiaomi mentions that Mi Credit is exclusive to MIUI devices — meaning it won’t work on the Android One-based Mi A1. From Xiaomi India head Manu Kumar Jain:

Xiaomi provides internet services to give our users a complete mobile internet experience, and MIUI functions as an open platform for us to deliver our wide range of internet services, such as content, entertainment, financial services and productivity tools. The connectivity between our devices and the seamless integration between hardware and internet services enable us to provide our users with better user experience.

Mi Credit is another big step in bringing an important internet service to India and we trust that our users would be able to truly benefit as the service becomes more sophisticated.

Currently, KreditBee is the only loan provider on Mi Credit, but that may change in the coming months as the service gets more momentum.

Before you get started with the service, a note of caution: payday loan providers tend to charge a higher rate of interest than banks, so make sure you read the details of the loan clearly before you avail a line of credit.

Nvidia vs. AMD

The Nvidia vs. AMD debate is like stirring up a den of snakes. Fans on both sides will strike out in defense of their preferred brand. The debate will never end as long as both manufacturers continue to feed the graphics market.

With AMD’s new Vega-based graphics products now on the streets, let’s take a look at the current state of the conflict to see where AMD and Nvidia stand in both desktop and laptop markets.

The best of the best, tested

Desktop PCs are important for AMD, since it has a chance to market directly to gamers rather than depending on relationships with manufacturing partners. Knowing this, AMD re-entered the high-end graphics game with the Vega chips in 2017, ready to take on Nvidia’s 10 series.

Going blow for blow, the top-of-the-line GPU for Nvidia is the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, which will cost you a hefty $700 when bought directly through Nvidia’s website (assuming they’re in stock). On the AMD side of the ring, you’ve got the Radeon RX Vega 64. Let’s see how the two stack up both in terms of performance and value.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Let’s start with Battlefield 1. In our testing at 1080p resolution and Ultra settings, AMD’s Radeon RX Vega 64 card managed a 138 frames-per-second (FPS) average. It fell between Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti with a 154 FPS average, and the GTX 1080 with a 135 FPS average. One step down from the Vega 64 is the Vega 56, which trailed behind the trio with an average framerate of 127 FPS. Crank up the resolution to 1440p, and you’ll see a big shift. Both GeForce cards come out on top, leaving the Vega cards in the dust.

Out testing with the resource-intensive Deus Ex: Mankind Divided generated similar results although the average frame counts weren’t quite as high, as is to be expected. Using the 1080p resolution and Ultra settings, the GTX 1080 Ti came out on top with a 102 FPS average, followed by the Radeon RX Vega 64 (78FPS), the GTX 1080 (74FPS), and the Radeon RX Vega 56 (73FPS). The latter cards were essentially running neck-to-neck, which wasn’t the case in Battlefield 1. But again, when switched to 1440p and Ultra details, the rankings went back in favor of the GTX cards.

In the performance-per-watt argument, Nvidia clearly wins here. The company’s cards come at a higher cost but are quieter and more efficient. On the other hand, most gamers will care more about price than wattage — and rightfully so. The $500 RX Vega 64 is a cheaper option than the $550 GTX 1080, and as we’ve shown in our numbers, there’s only a three-frame difference between the two.

Budget options

On the lower end of the desktop GPU spectrum, the Radeon RX 580 and RX 570 graphics cards tend to out-perform the GeForce GTX 1060 and lower in both Battlefield 1 and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided tests. For instance, with Battlefield 1 set at 1080p and Ultra detail settings, the RX 580 had a 91 FPS average followed by the RX 570 (89 FPS) and the GTX 1060 (77 FPS). You’ll see the same order when increasing the resolution to 1440p.

But with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at 1440p and Ultra settings, we barely saw any performance difference between the GTX 1060 and the RX 570, with the latter hitting a 30 FPS average and the GTX 1060 hitting a 29 FPS average. The RX 580 came out on top with a 35 FPS average. These three cards are obviously not ideal for playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided using these settings. But they are very capable desktop cards when playing the game at 1080p.

The big value resides in these Radeon RX 500 Series cards. Again, they draw more power than Nvidia’s GTX 10 Series models, with the $229 Radeon RX 580 (8GB) requiring 185 watts versus the $299 GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) pulling 120 watts. But AMD’s RX 580 outperforms the GTX 1060 for a lower price. The $170 Radeon RX 570 outperforms the GTX 1060 as well. In other words, when it comes to more budget-friendly GPUs, the AMD offerings have a better overall value.

An important thing to keep in mind is that when we’re spouting prices and power requirements, they’re based on Nvidia’s Founders Edition cards sold directly by the company. Meanwhile, AMD doesn’t sell graphics cards directly to customers, but instead it relies on third-party manufacturers. Typically, that means prices will be higher, and with the graphics card market thrown into chaos due to cryptocurrency, prices will be even higher for now. That’s why Nvidia can’t keep is Founders Edition models in stock.

For example, the Sapphire Radeon Nitro+ RX 580 with 8GB of memory currently retails for $359 on Newegg while MSI’s RX 580 Armor MK2 8G OC 8GB card sells for $339 — a far cry from AMD’s suggested $229 price. Meanwhile, EVGA’s single-fan GTX 1060 SC Gaming ACX 2.0 (6GB) sells for $319 on Newegg along with the dual-fan GTX 1060 06G-P4-6262-KR card (6GB) sells for $329. That’s slightly higher than Nvidia’s Founders Edition model sold on its site.

What about in laptops?

Here we don’t have a bunch of numbers because, quite frankly, discrete AMD graphics in a laptop is a rare find. The laptops we’ve tested thus far all relied on Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 10 Series for mobile, including the Max-Q variants. For instance, you can’t configure Alienware’s latest 17-inch laptop with a discrete Radeon GPU, while all gaming laptops manufactured by MSI ship with GeForce graphics. Why? Head here and notice that the most recent mobile-focused discrete GPUs launched in 2016.

While you see some entry-level options in laptops like the 15-inch MacBook Pro, they are few and far between. AMD’s recent push, it seems, is to focus on its all-in-one chips combining CPU cores with GPU cores. The company calls this an Accelerated Processing Unit (APU). Nvidia does something similar with its Tegra-branded chips, one of which resides in the Nintendo Switch console. But on a mobile discrete front, Nvidia clearly dominates the laptop market, although AMD’s collaboration with Intel seeks to steal some of that thunder.

Using Battlefield 1 at 1080p and Ultra settings, we found that the Radeon RX Vega M GH packed into two eighth-generation Intel Core i7 “modules” averages 68 frames per second. That’s better than Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q chip (65FPS) but falls behind the vanilla GTX 1060 for mobile (86FPS). We saw a similar order with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at 1080p and Ultra settings, as the RX Vega M GH component averaged at 33FPS, while the GTX 1060 managed 38FPS, and the GTX 1060 with Max-Q hit 31FPS.

Meanwhile, the Radeon RX Vega M GL component fell between the mobile version of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and vanilla GTX 1050 chips. For instance, in Battlefield 1 at 1080p and Ultra settings, the RX Vega M GL scored an average 49FPS while the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti hit a 51FPS average and the GTX 1050 hit a 42FPS average. Again, we saw a similar order with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at 1080p and Ultra settings.

All we can really say is that Nvidia is dominates the laptop market through its relationships with both mainstream manufacturers like Dell, as well as gaming-specific manufacturers like MSI. Intel’s new modules, which do include discrete Radeon graphics, are just now getting off the ground. We also haven’t benchmarked AMD’s latest Ryzen all-in-one chips for mobile despite having integrated Vega graphics. Even in most of the mainstream laptops you’ll find, manufacturers either rely on Intel’s integrated graphics or pair an Intel processor with a discrete Nvidia graphics chip.

Conclusion

The AMD vs. Nvidia argument is difficult to discuss because fans on both sides are so passionate about their allegiance. Feathers get ruffled, but in the end, you can’t help but notice that Nvidia takes the graphics lead in both the desktop and laptop markets.

AMD’s product rollout is also problematic. Aside from the two new Vega cards, which only target the top-end, the company’s last major GPU family shipped in 2015. A year later, Nvidia launched the first two cards in its performance-driven GTX 10 Series. AMD responded with the budget-focused RX 400 Series, tweaked and re-branded the family as the 500 Series in early 2017, and didn’t launch its two performance Vega cards until the latter half of 2017. Meanwhile, Nvidia grew its GTX 10 Series from two to ten products since launch.

If you still need clarification of which company currently dominates the graphics market, look no further than Steam. The April 2018 Steam Hardware & Software Survey shows 75.26 percent of the graphics cards in use are based on Nvidia GPUs, while 14.89 percent are AMD-based chips. It’s got a good start, but that’s a serious gap. If AMD wants to close in on Nvidia, it needs more than just two Vega cards on the market.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how great AMD cards are if they don’t show up in laptops. In order to make a serious kind of headway on Nvidia, it’s going to need to solidify relationships and build trust. Those don’t come easy.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ASRock’s four add-in graphics cards are based on AMD’s Radeon RX 500 Series
• Recent data suggests that GPU supply might be stabilizing and prices falling
• HP targets gamers on a budget with new Pavilion notebooks, desktops, and more
• The best cheap gaming PCs
• Intel’s Radeon-backed ‘Hades Canyon’ mini PC runs games at 1080p, Ultra graphics

YouTube Music: Everything you need to know

YouTube is taking the reins for Google’s music strategy — and it’s soft launching on Tuesday.

Google’s music strategy has been fractured and confusing and falling behind for years, with Google Play Music being treated like an orange-haired stepchild, YouTube Music being ignored by some users and unheard of by the rest, and YouTube being a place where people of all kinds come to listen to music — both legitimately uploaded and not-so-much.

Google’s been amassing a new team to take on the music industry, from streaming competitors like Spotify to the record labels that control what music can appear on what platforms and how.

We’ve been waiting months for the shoe to drop and Google to reveal its new strategy, and now we know what that new direction looks like. YouTube Red is dead, and it’s being replaced by YouTube Music and YouTube Premium.

May 23, 2018 — Your locally owned songs from Google Play Music will transfer over to YouTube Music

Google wants all of its Play Music subscribers to migrate over to YouTube Music at some point in 2019, and to help make that process as seamless as possible, the company’s confirmed that some of Play Music’s best features will be coming to the new YouTube Music — the biggest of which is a music locker for storing copies of song you locally own.

This news was recently confirmed by Google to The Verge, with the Head of YouTube Music saying on Twitter that “Your collection, playlists and preferences [from Google Play Music] will be preserved at migrated to YouTube music for a soft landing.”

In addition to having a place to store music you already own, YouTube Music will eventually allow you to buy new songs that you can add to your collection.

May 22, 2018 — The new YouTube Music is officially here!

Just like we expected, YouTube Music’s new app and desktop site officially started rolling out on May 22. Google says the new look is currently in “early access” and is gradually becoming available for folks in the U.S., Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.

To access YouTube Music, you can download the app from the Play Store or hit up the desktop site at music.youtube.com. If you’re not seeing the changes quite yet, be sure to check back frequently to know when you’ve been graced with Google’s good wishes.

The service starts at $9.99/month

Similar to every other streaming service, the new YouTube Music will offer a paid subscription of $9.99/month. For that price, you’ll get an ad-free experience when listening to your tunes, can have music videos play in the background, and download songs for offline listening.

The big difference with Google’s new plan, however, is that all of the non-music features included with YouTube Red will now cost extra.

For $11.99/month, you can subscribe to YouTube Premium and get all of the above features in addition to ad-free videos, the ability to play videos in the background and download them for offline viewing, and access to the growing collection of YouTube Original programming.

Existing YouTube Red subscribers are grandfathered into the old plan

Having to pay more for the same features is never an exciting proposition, but Google’s made sure to cater to those that are already subscribed to YouTube Red/Google Play Music.

If you’ve been a paying member for some time or sign up for the current service before the new YouTube Music + YouTube Premium changes take hold, you’ll be able to get all of the YouTube Premium perks for just $9.99/month instead of $11.99.

All-new apps are coming to mobile and desktop

If you’re already using YouTube Music, you’ll notice some big changes coming to the user interface. A “reimagined mobile app” is in the works, as is a brand-new desktop site. According to The Verge, both of these have been “designed specifically for music.”

Similar to what’s already offered in Play Music, Google will use AI to recommend songs and playlists based on where you’re at and what you’re doing. If YouTube Music detects you’re at the gym, it’ll suggest music to listen to that’ll help keep you moving. If it’s late at night and you’re home, you might be offered calm songs for unwinding.

There will be a bigger focus on YouTube Originals

YouTube Originals have paled in comparison to programming made by the likes of Hulu and Netflix, but this is another area Google’s hoping to improve.

It’s promised that YouTube Originals will offer “bigger original series and movies” spanning the genres of action adventure, drama, comedy, and reality shows. Along with the U.S., YouTube Originals will also feature content from the UK, Mexico, France, Germany, and others.

What’s happening to Play Music?

All of this is great, but what in the world is happening to Google Play Music? YouTube’s announcement says “if you use Google Play Music, nothing will change — you’ll still be able to access all of your purchased music, uploads and playlists in Google Play Music just like always.” However, I wouldn’t expect things to stay that way forever.

Google clearly wants YouTube Music to be the face that takes on Spotify and Apple Music, and having another service lying around that offers so many overlapping features will only create for continued confusion.

Play Music needs to be laid to rest in order for Google’s efforts with YouTube Music to truly pay off, and while that may not happen soon, I wouldn’t expect Play Music to still be kicking in a year’s time.

All of this will begin to roll out May 22

The new YouTube Music and YouTube Premium services are launching on Tuesday, May 22 in markets that already offer YouTube Red.

Judge rules it’s unconstitutional for Trump to block critics on Twitter

AFP/Getty Images

In a decision in a federal court in New York, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that President Trump may not block critics on Twitter for not sharing his political views. Doing so violates the First Amendment, the judge ruled.

“While we must recognize, and are sensitive to, the president’s personal First Amendment rights, he cannot exercise those rights in a way that infringes the corresponding First Amendment rights of those who have criticized him,” the judge said. The lawsuit was filed by Columbia University’s Knight Amendment Institute and seven Twitter users whom Trump blocked.

“Media reports say among those Trump has blocked are novelists Stephen King and Anne Rice, comedian Rosie O’Donnell, model Chrissy Teigen, actress Marina Sirtis and the military veterans political action committee VoteVets.org,” Reuters reported.

However, the judge did not compel Trump and co-defendant Dan Scavino, who serves as the president’s social media director, to unblock users, noting that a declaratory judgment was sufficient and that she assumed the president’s team will abide by her ruling.

In arriving at her decision, Buchwald agreed with Columbia University and the plaintiffs in that President Trump’s Twitter account is a public forum, and that blocking critics amounts to viewpoint discrimination, a violation of the First Amendment. Because the personal @realDonaldTrump account, which was established long before Trump’s presidential bid, was used by Trump in a presidential capacity in the past, Buchwald argued that it should be treated as a government account. The U.S. National Archives previously stated that tweets from the president’s account will be preserved and are considered presidential records. Trump has 52.2 million followers at the time of writing, and he has posted  more than 37,600 tweets since the account was created.

“This case requires us to consider whether a public official may, consistent with the First Amendment, ‘block’ a person from his Twitter account in response to the political views that person has expressed, and whether the analysis differs because that public official is the President of the United States,” Buchwald said said in her opinion. “The answer to both questions is no.”

Buchwald followed similar precedents set in a prior 2017 case involving a county board of supervisor blocking a critic on Twitter. Twitter users who are blocked may not respond to Trump’s tweets. Rather than blocking critics, Buchwald suggested that Trump used the mute function on Twitter to avoid seeing comments from those who don’t share in his viewpoints.

Acer’s new lineup includes white gaming laptop and Pixelbook-esque Chromebook

Acer held its annual Next@Acer press event in New York City on Wednesday to show its new line of products rolling out across the summer and into the fall. A big chunk of the show focused on gaming, revealing new desktops, laptops, peripherals, and other accessories. The company also teased the Predator X, a gaming desktop that borrows the typical workstation two-socket design to utilize two Xeon processors. Unfortunately, that’s all we know about that product at this time. 

Outside gaming, Acer also introduced some mainstream laptops including a premium Chromebook meant to compete with the Pixelbook. There’s a lot going on here after the Next@Acer event, and Acer CEO Jason Chen said even more will be announced several months down the road at the company’s next press event. Until then, let’s first dig into Acer’s updated gaming arsenal for 2018. 

Gaming 

Predator Orion 5000 Desktop (PO5-610, PO5-600) 

For starters, the PO5-610 provides four processor options ranging from the Core i5-8400 to the Core i7-8700K, all of which support up to 32GB of Intel’s Optane memory. The real kicker here is that the model shown during Acer’s event had two GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards running in SLI mode, so expect to pay a pretty penny for a configuration sporting this duo. Other GPU options include the 1080, 1070, and 1060 graphics cards. 

Outside the CPU and GPU aspects, the PO5-610 supports up to 64GB of DDR4 memory clocked at 2,666MHz, up to 3TB on a hard drive, and up to 512GB on a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. Audio is handled by a Creative Sound Blaster X 720 component while connectivity includes Wireless AC, Bluetooth 4.2, and Killer Ethernet wired networking. The dimensions are 9.96 x 20.47 (D) x 22.16 (H) inches. 

As for the PO5-600, it’s mostly similar to the PO5-610. You only have two processor options with this model (i7-8700 and i5-8400), and only one installed graphics card (GTX 1080, GTX 1070, or GTX 1060). That means it has one less PCIe x16 expansion slot, otherwise it provides the same expansion options consisting of two PCIe x1 slots, one M.2 2280 PCIe x4 slot, and one M.2 2230 slot for the Wireless AC card. 

• Availability: July
• Starting price: $1,499 

Predator Orion 3000 Desktop (PO3-600) 

Think of this desktop as a smaller, more cost-friendly version of the PO5-600. Feature-wise, it’s nearly identical, providing the same processor and memory options. But with this model you’ll find an expanded list of graphics add-in card options that tacks on Nvidia’s GTX 1050 Ti and vanilla GTX 1050 variants.

What you won’t see here is Killer wired networking (replaced by Realtek Dragon) or the same EMI-compliant transparent side panel provided on the Orion 5000 models. Instead, the left side plays host to a view of the inner components through a rectangular, grid-like window similar to what covers the intake fans mounted on the front. The dimensions are 6.57 x 14.64 (D) x 14.48 (H) inches. 

• Availability: October
• Starting Price: $999 

Nitro 50 Desktop (N50-600)

Moving down the gaming line we find the new Nitro 50 desktop packing three processor options ranging from the Core i3-8100 to the Core i7-8700 supporting up to 32GB of Intel Optane memory. The system memory, hard drive, and SSD options are identical to the Orion desktops. Connectivity includes Wireless AC, Bluetooth 5.0, and Realtek Dragon Ethernet networking. 

What sets this system apart from the Predator Orion desktops are options for AMD graphics cards: the Radeon RX 580X or the Radeon RX 580. If you cater to Team Green, the GTX 1070, 1060, 1050 Ti and 1050 cards are on the list too. The overall dimensions are 6.41 13.77 (D) x 13.38 (H) inches. 

• Availability: July
• Starting price: $799

Predator Helios 500 Laptop (PH517-51) 

Technically Acer introduced two Helios-branded models, but the only new gaming laptop in this bunch is the Predator Helios 500 – the other model was a white and gold edition of the current Predator Helios 300 (along with similarly-themed peripherals). This 500 model packs a 17.3-inch IPS G-SYNC display with options for a 4K or FHD resolution and backed by four processor choices spanning the Core i5-8300H to the Core i9-8950HK. The only discrete GPU option you have is this laptop is Nvidia’s GTX 1070 chip. 

The Predator Helios 500 can be configured with up to 16GB of DDR4 memory but manually upgradable to 64GB (4x 16GB). The laptop appears to support two storage devices: one M.2 SSD up to 1TB of storage and one 2.5-inch hard drive with up to 2TB of storage. The overall dimensions are 16.85 x 11.73 (D) x 1.52 (H) inches while its weight is 8.81 pounds.  

• Availability: June 
• Starting price: $1,999 

Acer’s new lineup includes white gaming laptop and Pixelbook-esque Chromebook

Acer held its annual Next@Acer press event in New York City on Wednesday to show its new line of products rolling out across the summer and into the fall. A big chunk of the show focused on gaming, revealing new desktops, laptops, peripherals, and other accessories. The company also teased the Predator X, a gaming desktop that borrows the typical workstation two-socket design to utilize two Xeon processors. Unfortunately, that’s all we know about that product at this time. 

Outside gaming, Acer also introduced some mainstream laptops including a premium Chromebook meant to compete with the Pixelbook. There’s a lot going on here after the Next@Acer event, and Acer CEO Jason Chen said even more will be announced several months down the road at the company’s next press event. Until then, let’s first dig into Acer’s updated gaming arsenal for 2018. 

Gaming 

Predator Orion 5000 Desktop (PO5-610, PO5-600) 

For starters, the PO5-610 provides four processor options ranging from the Core i5-8400 to the Core i7-8700K, all of which support up to 32GB of Intel’s Optane memory. The real kicker here is that the model shown during Acer’s event had two GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards running in SLI mode, so expect to pay a pretty penny for a configuration sporting this duo. Other GPU options include the 1080, 1070, and 1060 graphics cards. 

Outside the CPU and GPU aspects, the PO5-610 supports up to 64GB of DDR4 memory clocked at 2,666MHz, up to 3TB on a hard drive, and up to 512GB on a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. Audio is handled by a Creative Sound Blaster X 720 component while connectivity includes Wireless AC, Bluetooth 4.2, and Killer Ethernet wired networking. The dimensions are 9.96 x 20.47 (D) x 22.16 (H) inches. 

As for the PO5-600, it’s mostly similar to the PO5-610. You only have two processor options with this model (i7-8700 and i5-8400), and only one installed graphics card (GTX 1080, GTX 1070, or GTX 1060). That means it has one less PCIe x16 expansion slot, otherwise it provides the same expansion options consisting of two PCIe x1 slots, one M.2 2280 PCIe x4 slot, and one M.2 2230 slot for the Wireless AC card. 

• Availability: July
• Starting price: $1,499 

Predator Orion 3000 Desktop (PO3-600) 

Think of this desktop as a smaller, more cost-friendly version of the PO5-600. Feature-wise, it’s nearly identical, providing the same processor and memory options. But with this model you’ll find an expanded list of graphics add-in card options that tacks on Nvidia’s GTX 1050 Ti and vanilla GTX 1050 variants.

What you won’t see here is Killer wired networking (replaced by Realtek Dragon) or the same EMI-compliant transparent side panel provided on the Orion 5000 models. Instead, the left side plays host to a view of the inner components through a rectangular, grid-like window similar to what covers the intake fans mounted on the front. The dimensions are 6.57 x 14.64 (D) x 14.48 (H) inches. 

• Availability: October
• Starting Price: $999 

Nitro 50 Desktop (N50-600)

Moving down the gaming line we find the new Nitro 50 desktop packing three processor options ranging from the Core i3-8100 to the Core i7-8700 supporting up to 32GB of Intel Optane memory. The system memory, hard drive, and SSD options are identical to the Orion desktops. Connectivity includes Wireless AC, Bluetooth 5.0, and Realtek Dragon Ethernet networking. 

What sets this system apart from the Predator Orion desktops are options for AMD graphics cards: the Radeon RX 580X or the Radeon RX 580. If you cater to Team Green, the GTX 1070, 1060, 1050 Ti and 1050 cards are on the list too. The overall dimensions are 6.41 13.77 (D) x 13.38 (H) inches. 

• Availability: July
• Starting price: $799

Predator Helios 500 Laptop (PH517-51) 

Technically Acer introduced two Helios-branded models, but the only new gaming laptop in this bunch is the Predator Helios 500 – the other model was a white and gold edition of the current Predator Helios 300 (along with similarly-themed peripherals). This 500 model packs a 17.3-inch IPS G-SYNC display with options for a 4K or FHD resolution and backed by four processor choices spanning the Core i5-8300H to the Core i9-8950HK. The only discrete GPU option you have is this laptop is Nvidia’s GTX 1070 chip. 

The Predator Helios 500 can be configured with up to 16GB of DDR4 memory but manually upgradable to 64GB (4x 16GB). The laptop appears to support two storage devices: one M.2 SSD up to 1TB of storage and one 2.5-inch hard drive with up to 2TB of storage. The overall dimensions are 16.85 x 11.73 (D) x 1.52 (H) inches while its weight is 8.81 pounds.  

• Availability: June 
• Starting price: $1,999 

Apple Inks Deal With Volkswagen for Self-Driving Employee Shuttles

Apple has signed a deal with Volkswagen to use Volkswagen vans as self-driving shuttles designed to transport employees around its various campuses and office buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area, reports The New York Times.

Apple has been working on developing the shuttle program, called “PAIL” or Palo Alto to Infinite Loop, since last summer. At the time news of Apple’s work on the program first surfaced, the company was said to be planning to install its own self-driving software in a commercial vehicle from an automaker, which has turned out to be Volkswagen.

One of the Lexus SUVs Apple uses to test its autonomous driving software
Under the terms of the deal, T6 Transporter vans from Volkswagen will be turned into self-driving shuttles for employees.

Apple’s self-driving shuttle program is said to be behind schedule and “consuming nearly all of the Apple car team’s attention,” hinting at ongoing problems on its car-related project, which has already been scaled back.

Apple originally had grander plans for autonomous vehicles and over the course of the past several years, attempted to ink deals with companies like BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which would have led to the development of an all-electric autonomous vehicle.

According to today’s report, no deal was able to be established because Apple was asking potential partner companies to “hand over control” of data and design, something no car manufacturer was prepared to do.

When its grandiose self-driving vehicle plans fell through, Apple shifted focus to autonomous driving software under the leadership of Bob Mansfield.

Apple is now working on its shuttle program and has been testing several Lexus SUVs equipped with self-driving hardware and software out on the streets of Cupertino and surrounding areas. Beyond the shuttle plan, Apple is said to have no clear idea of what it’s going to do with its autonomous driving project.

Related Roundup: Apple Car
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Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro Over-Ear Headphones Review

A few weeks ago we looked at one of Beyerdynamic’s answer to the modern wireless trend in headphones, the Aventho Wireless. These on-ears impressed a lot, from their industrial design to their proficient components. But that also got us thinking; with all these new and technologically impressive headphones coming out, are past offerings rendered obsolete? I mean, the basic function of shooting audio into our ears is the same, isn’t it?

So we accepted a review unit of the “old” DT 770 Pro. The “DT” series has been Beyerdynamic’s “value” line, and the 770 Pro is the entry-level model. This also means that it holds the most potential for pushing the bang for your buck. Let’s take a look if it’s still a superb over-ear for the money.

The DT 770 Pro is offered in different impedance varities; ours is the smartphone-friendly 80 ohms.

The DT 770 Pro’s packaging is a simple affair.

Design

Technically being a lower-end model, we were right in expecting basic design and materials from the DT 770 Pro. This isn’t to say it’s flimsy. Beyerdynamics did the best it could in spite of this. The ear cups have a couple standout elements, like the textured dome and large branding print across the center.

Big headphone for serious listeners.

We like the stealthy vibe. The whole facade portrays attractive sophistication rather than flash. That said, there’s no getting around how cheap they feel in-hand. It’s hard plastic all-around, hollow to the tap. We don’t get the sense that they’ll fall apart, it’s just that these days, even headphones at this price-point are upping their build quality.

The headband, on the other hand, is covered in a substantial leather wrap. Touring around, we begin to see that Beyerdynamic poured resources into the headphone’s ergonomics, that is, the bits that make contact with the head. There’s generous cushioning on the headband’s underside and on the large ear pads.

Speaking of which, we don’t often see a fabric wrap on ear pads (at least, these days). Most headphone manufacturers opt for some variation of leather. The DT 770 Pro’s ear pads feel as nice on the head as they appear to. However, we’re not confident that they’ll hold up to grime over time nearly as well as leather pads would.

Usability

The DT 770 Pro’s ear pads are larger than the average bear. Coupled with the soft cushioning, you can guess that comfort is top-notch. It almost feels like your head is sandwiched between pillows. The enveloping wear also means that sound isolation is above average – a welcomed benefit considering that there’s no fancy active noise cancellation of the sort.

But a resulting disadvantage is that the headphones aren’t mindful of portability, like with many of today’s modern alternatives. The headband doesn’t have any kind of hinge that allows the footprint to decrease. What’s more, the large ear cups have limited degree of freedom. They can pitch a tad, and rotate even less – so no rotation that can flatten the profile to a more travel-friendly form.

The packaging is likewise basic. Apart from the headphones and manual, you’re just given a 1/4″ jack adapter (being that these are aimed at the “Pro” level) and a thin (somewhat cheap feeling) drawstring carrying bag.

These things are fine considering this is an “entry-level” model of the series, which we figure Beyerdynamic dumps most of the resources to the headphone’s design and sound. You also won’t find anything exciting on the cable front, like the ability to detach and switch cables.

There’s no detachable cable mechanism, unfortunately, but at least a sturdy stress relief at the attachment

The DT 770 Pro comes packaged with a “Pro” level 1/4″ jack, but unscrew it to reveal a standard 3.5mm termination.

Fortunately, the DT 770’s cable is sturdily made. It has a quality thickness and rubbery sheathing. The “Pro” exemplification is also seen in the cable length, close to a whopping 10 feet.

Sound

Being an “entry level” model, we were expecting the DT 770 Pro to make up for its minimal exterior with great sound quality. This notion was asserted by the exceptional reviews that the headphone has racked. Suffice to say, it doesn’t disappoint.

The first thing we want to point out with that there’s multiple impedance versions of the DT 770 Pro, from a low 32 ohms all the way to 250 ohms, to suit the differing power output of source equipment. Despite the lower end price, this is still built like a “Pro” headphone. Beyerdynamic lent us the middle-ground 80 ohms variant. This is still driveable via a smartphone, but note that if you want more volume headroom, then the 32 ohms version may be the one for you.

The DT 770 Pro sounds great out of the Galaxy S9, though, the cable is comically long for smartphone use.

We really enjoyed the bass response of the DT 770 Pro. It has a fantastic balance to it, juggling power with finesse. It’s a clean articulation that’s notably bold but stays within its confines. This means excellent separation with a mid-range that is similarly potent. The entire first half of the spectrum is really well done. Where ever the track dictates, that range has enough authority to shine and grab the user’s attention. What’s more, the reproduction is skillfully an open and airy one. You get a perceived around-the-head fullness that, while not to the level of open-back headphones, is above-average for a closed-back.

Though, the mid-range isn’t perfect. You’ll get more clarity up the price chain. Particularly, when tracks get busy, instruments don’t have the cleanest distinction. Elements aren’t necessarily “muddy”, but it’s just not that crystal clear detail that analytical listeners strive for. We’d also expect more openness in this region, especially since this quality is let on by the other ranges. Don’t get us wrong, the mids are far from a compressed, in-the-head reproduction. Vocals have a natural, airy quality, and the dynamics have some dimensional play. It’s just that, overall, the region isn’t fully taken advantage of in the large space that the headphones can simulate.

The treble, on the other hand, is excellently captured, both in quality and dynamics. The DT 770 Pro can not only retrieve crisp, higher-end details, but it’s delivered in a skillful way. Instruments like cymbals sport a nice clash that extend notably widely (creating a pleasing sense of depth as sounds can echo through the space). This is the kind of caliber we’d want throughout the entire spectrum – perhaps what you can expect from Beyerdynamic’s higher-end DT models.

Final Thoughts

So is the DT 770 Pro still worth it for the price these days? The sound quality tilts the pendulum towards “Yes”, in our opinion. Many modern headphones offer more features and better materials for the money, which put up quite a fight against the very basic DT 770 Pro. But the same can’t generally be said for sound quality. If you don’t have a critical need for portability and want “Pro” sound that can be driven by a smartphone, then we think the DT 770 Pro should be a serious consideration.

BMW racing to patch 14 security vulnerabilities found in its cars

Chinese researchers discovered 14 vulnerabilities on the on-board computers of a number of BMW vehicles, leading the automaker to begin issuing security patches over-the-air and through dealer networks. These flaws affect the infotainment unit, telematics controls, and the wireless communications systems on BMW’s i Series, X1 sDrive, 5 Series, and 7 Series models dating as far back as 2012. Four of the discovered vulnerabilities require hackers to have physical USB access to the car, while six of the vulnerabilities can be exploited remotely. The last four vulnerabilities require physical access to the car’s computer.

“Our research findings have proved that it is feasible to gain local and remote access to infotainment, T-Box components, and UDS communication above certain speed [for] selected BMW vehicle modules and been able to gain control of the CAN buses with the execution of arbitrary, unauthorized diagnostic requests of BMW in-car systems remotely,” the researchers at at Tencent’s Keen Security Lab wrote in a preliminary report, noting that a full report would be available sometime in 2019 to allow BMW time to patch the flaws.

Additionally, if a hacker has access to the vehicle physically, the USB, Ethernet, and OBD-II ports could also be exploited. Because the USB Ethernet Interface doesn’t have security restrictions, it could be used to access the internet network of the head unit and detect the exposed internal services through port scanning, the report said. Hackers can also use a USB stick to inject malicious code into BMW’s ConnectedDrive by gaining root control of the hu-intel system.

Hackers can also trigger remote code execution if they don’t have access to a vehicle by exploiting memory corruption vulnerabilities that allowed users to bypass signature protection in the firmware and break secure isolation of various system components. (In 2015, a 14-year-old hacked a car with $15 worth of tech using a similar technique.) By gaining access to CAN buses, an attacker can remotely trigger remote diagnostic functions by leveraging a chain of multiple vulnerabilities across several affected vehicle components. Hackers can send arbitrary diagnostics to the engine computer. The danger, according to researchers, is that the engine control unit, or ECU, will still respond to diagnostic messages even at normal driving speeds, and “it will become much worse if attackers invoke some special UDS routines.”

“By chaining the vulnerabilities together, we are able to remotely compromise the NBT [car computer],” researchers said. “After that, we can also leverage some special remote diagnose interfaces implemented in the Central Gateway Module to send arbitrary diagnostic messages (UDS) to control ECUs on different CAN Buses.”

In a statement to ZDNet, the BMW Group noted that the research was conducted in conjunction with BMW’s cybersecurity team, highlighting that “third parties increasingly play a crucial role in improving automotive security as they conduct their own in-depth tests of products and services.”

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