SleepScore app aims to take your slumber to new depths

SleepScore

There are smart mattresses, wearables, even robots — these days it’s easy to spend a lot of money on gadgets designed to improve the quality of your slumber, and some of you may be losing sleep over trying to find the one that works best for you.

This week a free app landed that claims it can improve your sleep simply by listening to your breathing and detecting your body movements when you’re zonked out. Created by SleepScore Labs, the iOS app (Android coming in the next few weeks) uses sleep-detecting sonar algorithms developed by ResMed, a specialist in sleep medical devices.

So how do you use it? Well, fire up the app as you climb into bed (obviously) and place your smartphone on your bedside table. SleepScore then uses your handset’s speakers to send out inaudible sound waves that detect your body movements and breathing throughout the night. These sound waves return via the microphone, prompting the app’s algorithms to spring into action.

According to SleepScore, the app’s algorithms are clever enough to “interpret the shape and movement of the reflected sound waves to sense full breathing wave form and body movements.”

It goes on: “The combination of these signals is used to accurately decipher which sleep stage the user is in (wake, light sleep, deep sleep, or REM), as well as the number of times users wake up through the night and the time it takes to fall asleep.”

Each morning, you’ll receive a score of between 1 and 100 as an indicator of how well you slept, including a breakdown of what affected the score, such as sleep length, time to fall asleep, or interruptions. So a score in the high 90s indicates a full night of restful sleep, while a single-digit score suggests a dismal night where you might ask yourself if it was even worth going to bed.

Sleep goals

If you’re facing challenges with your sleep, the app lets you select various goals and offers advice on how you can achieve them. Like some other sleep apps, SleepScore’s includes a smart alarm that claims to wake you up “at the ideal moment” in your sleep cycle, though let’s face it, there’s never an ideal moment to be awoken by a machine-generated noise.

The app will also give you “personalized product recommendations” based on your data that may include anything from “innovative pillows to sound machines and snoring solutions.” That means it might give a shout-out to its Max sleep aid, a bedside gadget priced at $150.

In-app purchases

Cough up for in-app purchases and you’ll receive your complete sleep history, trend and correlations analytics, exportable data, and a sleep report for your doctor if your nighttime issues are something of a nightmare.

“We’re excited that for the first time, virtually everyone can get a truer picture of their sleep health for free and make smarter decisions about how to get a more restful night’s sleep,” said Colin Lawlor, CEO of SleepScore Labs.

The company says that at least 1.2 billion people around the world suffer from a variety of sleep issues, while almost 60 percent of the global population “misunderstand their own sleep problems due to a lack of measurable insights.”

If you suspect your current sleep tracker or wearable device is pushing out inaccurate data about your time in Slumberland, then SleepScore’s free sleep-tracking app may be worth a shot.

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OxygenOS + OnePlus 6: Top 10 features you need to know

OxygenOS stays true to Google’s vision of Android while offering plenty of customization options.

OxygenOS is one of the best implementations of Android currently available. Instead of offering a heavily customized interface like its Chinese rivals, OnePlus has kept things simple, adding a few differentiating features on top of a vanilla user interface. There are enough tweaks and gestures that let you customize your experience, but the focus is on performance.

OnePlus baked new functionality into OxygenOS for the OnePlus 6, and made a few tweaks to existing features that increase their usefulness. Let’s take a look at what sets the custom skin apart.

Navigation gestures

OxygenOS comes with a set of nifty gestures that let you perform certain actions with ease. The three-finger swipe down gesture to take a screenshot is an elegant solution to the default way of taking a screenshot, and you can also control music playback and launch apps with gestures.

One of my favorites is the gesture that lets you take a photo by long pressing on the camera sensor. It comes in handy if you tend to take self-portraits with the rear camera.

Starting this year, OxygenOS picked up navigation gestures that are akin to what you’d find on the iPhone X. The gestures allow you to get rid of the navigation bar — freeing up screen real estate — and offer a more intuitive way of navigating the interface.

How to enable navigation gestures on the OnePlus 6

Reading Mode

Reading Mode made its debut last year with the OnePlus 5, and is one of my favorite features on OxygenOS. Like Night Mode, the feature automatically calibrates the color temperature of the display, making it conducive to reading.

Instead of switching to warmer colors, Reading Mode creates a monochrome effect that’s great for reading text. You can activate the mode manually or set it to automatically launch for specific apps. For instance, if you have the Kindle app installed on your OnePlus 6, you can enable Reading Mode to launch automatically whenever you open the app, leaving the rest of the user interface unchanged.

How to activate Reading Mode on the OnePlus 6

Gaming Mode

OnePlus rolled out a Gaming DND mode last year, and with the OnePlus 6 the mode is getting an overhaul and a new name — Gaming Mode.

Activating Gaming Mode silences all incoming notifications with the exception of calls and alarms. The feature also prioritizes network traffic for games, limiting how much bandwidth background apps can use. There’s also an option to lock in screen brightness so it doesn’t change during a gaming session.

Gaming Mode also offers a battery saver option that’s designed to maximize battery life by reducing the screen resolution while gaming.

Schedule Do Not Disturb

The Alert Slider has been a mainstay on OnePlus devices since the OnePlus 2, and this year the feature is getting an update that makes it easier to use. With the OnePlus 6, you can use the Alert Slider to toggle between ring, vibrate, and silent modes, with DND getting its own set of options.

During the OnePlus 6 launch, the company announced that it would add the ability to schedule Do Not Disturb mode, and OxygenOS 5.1.6 adds an option to do just that.

You’ll finally be able to set up custom rules for Do Not Disturb, and configure a preset time so it kicks in automatically — no more toggling the Alert Slider every night.

Face Unlock

OnePlus introduced Face Unlock late last year, and it’s safe to say that the manufacturer’s implementation is one of the fastest around.

The face unlock feature relies on over 100 data points to verify your facial features, and while the feature isn’t as secure as the fingerprint sensor — OnePlus says as such while you’re setting it up — it is a convenient way to unlock your phone.

Selfie portrait mode and Light Bokeh

The OnePlus 6 has a dedicated camera sensor at the back that facilitates portrait mode, but if you’re one to take a lot of selfies, the feature is now available on the front camera as well.

Starting with OxygenOS 5.1.6, you’ll be able to use portrait mode with the front camera. Edge detection for the front camera isn’t as fine-tuned as there’s a single sensor up front, but the feature offers an easy way to get a blur effect with your selfies.

The 5.1.6 build also introduces a Light Bokeh mode that creates light patterns when you use portrait mode with the rear camera. You’ll be able to choose from various patterns — stars and hearts — and the feature adds those patterns in the background of your portraits.

Shelf

Shelf is located to the left of the home screen, and gives you a quick overview of the date, time, and weather information for your current location, along with a list of your frequent contacts and recently-used apps.

There’s also the option to add widgets to the Shelf, and you can add or remove modules as needed.

How to customize the Shelf on the OnePlus 6

App locker

OxygenOS comes with a built-in app locker that provides an added layer of safety to your private data, whether it’s photos stored in the gallery, or social networking apps. You’ll be able to add any app to the locker, and select whether their notification content is visible.

Apps secured using the locker will need a PIN or fingerprint authentication.

Ambient display

The Lift-up display gives you easy access to the clock and time widgets, as well as incoming notifications. You’ll be able to choose from several clock faces, and set a display message on the screen.

There’s also the option to wake the screen for new notifications, and you can invoke the “Ok Google” hotword to launch Assistant even when the screen is off.

LED notifications

OxygenOS allows you to customize the LED notification light for various actions. There’s the option to select from eight colors for default notifications, battery full indicator, battery charging, and battery low. You can also select which apps trigger the LED notification light.

As we’re on the subject of notifications, OxygenOS lets you choose from five custom vibration patterns for incoming calls.

Bonus: Quick Pay for India

India is OnePlus’ largest market, and the company built a feature that’s exclusive to local customers. Dubbed Quick Pay, it allows customers to launch directly into Paytm’s payment window easily. You’ll be able to access Paytm by long pressing the fingerprint sensor, and it works even when the screen is off.

Paytm is the largest digital wallet service in India by some margin, and with digital transactions on the rise, giving customers the ability to quickly access Paytm’s payments page is a nifty addition.

What OxygenOS features do you like the most? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Updated June 2018: This article was rewritten to reflect changes to OxygenOS on the OnePlus 6.

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Google Translate uses A.I. to improve accuracy for offline use

Google Translate is a great tool when you don’t have the language skills to take care of things, but its offline performance can be a bit ropey at times.

That’s gradually changing, however, as the web giant this week announced an update that’ll enable the app to offer more accurate translations even when you’re without an internet connection.

Two years ago, the company introduced neural machine translation (NMT) to the app, a system that processes entire sentences in one go, and which uses artificial intelligence to improve translations over time. Developers at Google have now worked out a way to package this technology for offline use, too, and that’s why you should start to see better translations if you use the app without a connection.

The neural system “translates whole sentences at a time, rather than piece by piece,” Google’s Julie Cattiau wrote in a blog post announcing the update. “It uses broader context to help determine the most relevant translation, which it then rearranges and adjusts to sound more like a real person speaking with proper grammar — this makes translated paragraphs and articles a lot smoother and easier to read.

Cattiau points out how offline translations can come in useful if you’re traveling to other countries without a local data plan, or if you don’t have access to internet, or indeed if you simply don’t want to use cellular data. Another bonus is that each language set is no bigger than 45MB, so they won’t take up much space on your smartphone.

Available for both iOS and Android devices, you can make use of the new feature by opening the app, tapping on Settings and then Offline translation. It’s then just a case of tapping the plus sign and selecting the languages you want to download.

The neural system update is coming for nearly 60 languages this week and will be rolled out over several days, Google said.

Oh, go on then … here’s the full list of languages receiving the update: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Belarusian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, and Welsh.

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Uber eyes millions of new riders with the launch of Uber Lite

Lots of other popular online services have done it, and now Uber has joined the club.

We’re talking about lightweight apps for those with unreliable connectivity, limited data plans, or mobile devices with a small amount of storage. Such apps are usually targeted at emerging markets where internet infrastructure is continuing to be developed.

Uber Lite was “built in India” but “designed for the world,” the company said in a blog post announcing the new app. But India’s population of 1.3 billion people is the initial target for Uber’s new app.

Currently Android only, Uber Lite uses just 5MB of storage — that compares to more than 280MB for the full iOS version (storage for its regular Android app “varies with device”).

Uber’s Shirish Andhare, who takes care of the company’s products for emerging markets, says the new app features a “300-millisecond response time (literally the blink of the eye),” promising that “the booking process is fast even in low connectivity.”

The team has managed to retain many of the core features of the regular Uber app, including in-app support and the ability to share a trip with friends and family.

A new way of doing things

But as you’d expect, there are some differences.

With Uber Lite, you’ll only be offered a map when you ask for one, a process that requires just a single tap. When you choose not to use maps, the app will provide a progress bar showing how close your driver is getting to your pick-up point.

A “guided pickups” feature determines your current location, though if GPS or network issues make this difficult, the app will automatically surface popular pick-up points nearby, one of which you can select with a tap.

In fact, Uber Lite works to prioritize tap over type in an effort to speed up the ride-request experience. It does this using its A.I. smarts to work out how you use the app, such as which routes you take most often. It’ll then offer these as one-tap selections when you open the app, saving you from having to type anything in.

Andhare says the launch of Uber Lite is “just the start” as it plans to add further updates “like the ability for riders to choose their preferred language for the app during sign up, and request a ride even when they are offline.”

Following India, Uber Lite will launch in additional countries later this year. India is now Uber’s most important Asian market after the company exited China and south-east Asia in the last couple of years. The ridesharing service launched there five years ago and has around 450,000 drivers in more than 30 cities across the country.

Other popular online services have launched lite versions in recent years, among them Facebook, Messenger, Google, Twitter, Skype, and LinkedIn.

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Lenovo’s first VR-certified 15-inch mobile workstation packs a six-core CPU

Lenovo introduced its first 15-inch virtual reality-ready mobile workstation on Wednesday, June 13, the ThinkPad P52 laptop. It joins the current ThinkPad P52s model but offers better hardware such as up to an eighth-generation Intel Xeon six-core processor, up to a Nvidia Quadro P3200 discrete graphics chip, and up to 128GB of system memory. With that kind of hardware, you should have no problem developing and experiencing top-notch virtual reality applications and games. 

Lenovo didn’t provide a full list of processor options prior to the workstation’s introduction, but you will have a choice of five operating system options for your developing needs: Windows 10 Pro for Workstations, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home, Ubuntu, or Red Hat Linux. Preloaded on the laptop will be Lenovo Vantage and a trial of Microsoft Office 2016. 

Lenovo’s generalized hardware list shows that you can cram up to 6TB of storage in the new workstation, some of which relies on PCIe-based connections for crazy-fast data read and write speeds. You will also find two types of memory options: 8/16/32GB non-ECC memory sticks, and 8/16GB ECC memory sticks. The laptop presumably has four memory slots supporting 32GB each. 

For the workstation’s port complement, here is what you get: 

• 3x USB-A (5Gbps) 
• 2x Thunderbolt 3 
• 1x HDMI 2.0 
• 1x Mini DisplayPort 1.4 
• 1x Microphone/headphone combo jack 
• 1x SD card reader 
• 1x Smart Card reader 
• 1x Gigabit Ethernet port 

Other bells and whistles in Lenovo’s upcoming workstation include a 15.6-inch touch-capable screen with a resolution supporting up to 3,840 x 2,160, support for 100 percent of the Adobe RGB color space, and a brightness of up to 400 nits. The laptop ships with an infrared camera for facial recognition in Windows Hello, a 720p webcam, Intel 9560 Wireless AC connectivity, Bluetooth 5.0, and 4G LTE connectivity (Cat 9). 

Finally, powering this laptop is a 90WHr battery and a 170-watt external power supply. The workstation measures 14.86 x 9.93 x 0.96 inches and weighs around 5.4 pounds. 

“When our customers choose Lenovo, we want them to know that means more than just receiving a quality computer,” the company says. “For us, it’s about choosing design innovation, legendary quality and a dedication to detail. Like you, we constantly challenge the conventional to deliver an entirely new level of power, durability, and possibility for our customers.” 

Meanwhile, the ThinkPad P52s mobile workstation has a $1,070 starting price and will likely be the cheaper alternative. The baseline configuration includes an Intel Core i5-8350U processor, a discrete Quadro P500 graphics chip, 8GB of system memory clocked at 2,400MHz (DDR4), and a 500GB hard drive. The 15.6-inch IPS screen only supports a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. 

The ThinkPad P52 workstation doesn’t launch until later this month for an unknown starting price. Also made available at launch will be the ThinkPad Thunderbolt Workstation Dock, the Lenovo Passage Backpack, and a 170-watt ThinkPad power supply if something goes wrong with P52’s bundled version (aka kids, pets, vacuum cleaners, etc.). 

To see Lenovo’s entire family of P Series workstations, head here.

How to play ‘Skyrim: Very Special Edition’ on your Alexa device

Bethesda appeared to be mocking itself during its E3 2018 conference with its trailer for Skyrim: A Very Special Edition on Amazon Alexa. The trailer features comedian Keegan-Michael Key getting completely carried away playing the game, swiping everything off of his table while using the unrelenting force shout “Fus Ro Dah.”

Most people thought the game was a joke. But, it’s no joke at all. Like everyone else, we were surprised to find out the game is real. Yes, you can actually download and play Skyrim: A Very Special Edition.

What is ‘Skyrim: A Very Special Edition?’

Skyrim for Alexa is a simple, text-based adventure game. It’s reminiscent of the old DOS text adventure games like Infocom and other text-based games from the ’80s, except it’s voice-controlled, so you listen to the game through a speaker and input your commands vocally.

While playing Skyrim: A Very Special Adventure, Skyrim fans will recognize some of the features and lingo in the game, like some of the races, enemies, weapons, and abilities. For instance, you’ll probably come across someone from the Red Guard race, or maybe a Khajiit warrior, or possibly a Dark Elf. The game also frequently asks if you want to use shout. Unlike the console iterations of Skyrim, however, you can’t customize your character, open your inventory, or choose the specific spell you want to use during combat.

Although you don’t have a ton of control over what’s happening in the game, it is fun to imagine yourself traveling through the universe. With a little imagination, you can picture yourself in the world of Skyrim, going on quests as Alexa describes them to you.

How to play Skyrim on Amazon Echo

To play Skyrim: A Very Special Edition on your Echo Spot or another Amazon Alexa device, you just have to follow a few simple steps.

Step 1: Go to your Amazon account and search Alexa skills for “Skyrim: A Very Special Edition.” You’ll also want to make sure your Echo device is connected to your Amazon account.

Step 2: Enable the skill.

Step 3: Say “Alexa, open Skyrim”

Step 4: Start your text-based adventure.

The game starts by telling you that you’re standing at a crossroad, and it asks you which of two options you want to explore. Do you want to explore a fortified town or a foggy dock? If you start the game over, it may give you two different options, like an isolated shack or an ancient stone. As you play on, you’ll encounter enemies. When you encounter an enemy, your main options are to attack the enemy with a weapon, cast a spell, use a shout, or flee the scene.

Throughout the game, you’ll notice Alexa has a lot of funny quips. For instance, if you choose the flee option, Alexa may say something like “you scamper off with your tail between your legs, no need to mention this to anyone.” Thanks Alexa, we feel much better now.

If you exit the game, it will start you back at the beginning of the quest you were on when you left. It may say something like, “you open your quest journal, and you were helping a dark elf…” to remind you of your quest.

How to play Skyrim on your smartphone

If you want to go into battle without an Echo device, no worries. Here’s how to play Skyrim: A Very Special Edition on your smartphone:

Step 1: Download the Amazon app on your iOS device. Android users should download the Alexa app.

Step 2: Login into your Amazon Account, search Alexa Skills for ‘Skyrim: A Very Special Edition,’ and enable the skill.

Step 3: Tap the Alexa button in the upper-right corner of the Amazon App. If using the Alexa App, the Alexa circle is located at the bottom.

Step 4: Say “Alexa, Open Skyrim.”

Step 5: Begin your adventure.

Is Skyrim: A Very Special Edition any good?

Don’t expect the Alexa version of Skyrim to be anything like Skyrim Special Edition. It’s not even close. We may even go as far as to say that the game is a de-evolution back about 20 or 30 years. It offers limited choices and very limited user control. You can ask very basic questions, like “what’s my health?” and Alexa will tell you “your health is 95.”

But, other than Alexa answering very basic questions and offering you a few options to choose from in situations throughout the game, you’re kind of just along for the adventure. But, that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to try.

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Out-of-this-world champagne bottle is designed for popping in zero gravity

So you’ve scrimped and saved, and your 2038 self and significant other are rocketing off into space for the first time, staying on one of the pricey but luxurious International Space Station-style hotels that orbit the Earth. But how best to celebrate your week away from work and your belligerent robot boss? How about by popping a bottle of the world’s finest zero-gravity champagne!

Okay, so most of this scenario is still science fiction, although it’s certainly becoming more real every day. However, the reference to a space champagne is totally legit. It’s the work of Mumm International, one of the world’s most established champagne producers. This week, the French company announced its new Mumm Grand Cordon Stellar vintage, a bubbly designed with space exploration in mind.

Officially launching (no, not in that way) in September, the new champagne is the result of a three-year partnership with space design agency Spade. While the contents of the bottle are what you might expect, the part of it that makes it space-ready is the unique design of the bottle. Or as Spade founder Octave de Gaulle said: “The big design challenge for Mumm Grand Cordon Stellar was actually getting the liquid out of the bottle [in zero gravity].”

Without the assistance of gravity, the unusual-looking bottle uses the champagne’s gas to expel the liquid from the bottle into a ring-shaped frame. There, it is concentrated into a droplet of bubbles, which float through the air until they are captured by an equally unorthodox champagne glass boasting a concave cup. The otherworldly experience continues when you drink the champagne, since the alcohol exists as a ball of foam until it enters the drinkers’ mouth, whereupon it transforms back into a liquid.

“It’s a very surprising feeling,” Didier Mariotti, Mumm’s Cellar Master, said in a statement. “Because of zero gravity, the liquid instantly coats the entire inside of the mouth, magnifying the taste sensations. There’s less fizziness and more roundness and generosity, enabling the wine to express itself fully.”

According to Mumm, this will be one of the first champagnes to grace the supersonic airliner French Concorde. There’s no word yet on what this space-age champagne will retail for, but we can’t imagine it’ll be particularly cheap. Still, if you start paying it off now, it’ll be taken care of by the time of your 2038 vacation!

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Google plays guidance counselor with its new college search feature

Choosing which college to want to attend for the next four years is stressful enough, never mind all the other factors that come along with it: Finances, the campus environment, and more. To help ease the anxiety, Google added a new feature to its search engine that provides all the information needed to responsibly navigate the future.

Using public information from the U.S. Department of Education’s College and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the results include data available specifically for four-year colleges. After searching a specific school, the new feature breaks down the information into different tabs to look through admissions, cost, majors, outcomes, and other criteria.

Last year, the company debuted a similar feature for job searches on Google. By searching terms like “jobs near me” and “teaching jobs” when looking for work, the results provide users with information like the location of the job and how long ago the post went live. It also includes whether it’s a full-time or part-time position and an estimate of how long the commute will take from home.

Similar to the job search feature, students searching specific four-year schools will be able to click through in-depth information by simply typing in “UCLA” or “Rutgers University” into the search bar. That way, there is an ability to rule out options that aren’t intriguing right on the spot.

To give both students and parents a more realistic overview of what to expect over the next few years, the search tool will provide the average cost after student aid is applied, which is also broken down by household income. Other data includes graduation rates, along with the average annual income 10 years after enrollment to help students see the long-term effects of attending the school.

The search feature also lists stats about the student body, notable alumni, and undergraduate enrollment rates to help paint a picture of what attending the specific college could look like. It will even suggest other colleges that are similar to the one you’re currently looking at to expand your list of options.

Google is currently rolling out the college search feature is on mobile. Some features are available on desktop as well.

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Google Pixel Launcher will soon let you manually toggle its dark/light theme

The feature will be added in a “future Android build.”

Google’s Pixel Launcher is one of the best Android launchers around, and with the launch of the Pixel 2 last year, it introduced a feature that enabled a dark theme when applying certain wallpapers. Now, Google’s going to give you manual control for toggling it.

Spotted by the fine folks at Android Police, a Googler recently responded to a thread on the Google Issue Tracker from a user requesting a light and dark theme toggle in Android P, saying:

We have added support for a Dark theme to be applied to quick settings and launcher under Settings -> Display -> Device Theme. It will be available in a future Android build.

It’s unclear what the “future Android build” will be, and while we could see this added as soon as Android P Developer Preview 4, we should get it by P’s public release at the latest.

I love the current implementation of the Pixel Launcher’s dark theme being tied to your wallpaper, but even so, it’s going to be really nice to have the freedom of choosing when it is and isn’t applied. Also, with Google putting this under a new “Device Theme” section, might we see even more themes added down the road? Speculate away in the comments below.

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AT&T granted approval to acquire Time Warner for $85 billion

The decision comes after a six-week-long trial.

For the past six weeks, AT&T has been in court over concern of its want to purchase Time Warner for a total of $85 billion. On Tuesday, June 12, Judge Richard Leon of the United States District Court in Washington D.C. officially approved the deal.

Leon says that the acquisition doesn’t violate any antitrust laws, and in response to the government asking Leon to put down his own ruling to potentially kill the purchase, Leon noted that the quest was “manifestly unjust.”

AT&T was originally sued by the U.S. Justice Department for trying to buy Time Warner, and if it wants to, the Department has the option of making an appeal before AT&T moves to complete the deal six days from now.

Per Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department —

We continue to believe that the pay-TV market will be less competitive and less innovative as a result of the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner.

On the flip side, David McAtee of AT&T’s general counsel says:

We are pleased that, after conducting a full and fair trial on the merits, the Court has categorically rejected the government’s lawsuit to block our merger with Time Warner.

With AT&T and Time Warner joining forces, the two companies claim they’ll be able to better compete with the likes of Google, Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, and others. AT&T and Time Warner will offer better-targeted ads to their customers, and as a result of all this, it’s expected that prices will be lowered at some point.

AT&T says it’ll complete the purchase of Time Warner on June 20, and seeing as how the wireless carrier first announced these plans on October 22 of 2016, some resolution is well overdue.

What do you think about AT&T buying Time Warner? Drop a line in the comments below.

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