Hands on with Marvel’s Spider-Man for PlayStation 4

Spider-Man looks and feels beautiful to play, but there are a few eyebrow-raising gameplay elements.

At Sony’s E3 2018 event, they finally showed off in-depth gameplay for Insomniac’s Spider-Man… or, as in-depth as they thought they should, I suppose. Just from what was on screen, I was disappointed in the lack of detail the publisher went through in showing off the game. None of what they showed was especially dramatic from what we had already known, and it felt like much of our time was spent in cutscenes rather than in gameplay.

However, after the event, I was able to go hands-on with Spider-Man from Insomniac Games and experience traveling the city, fighting off bad guys, and taking down a familiar boss.

Spider-Man, Spider-Man

When I first saw the trailer for Spider-Man, I was excited, but a bit nervous at the prospect of the most quintessential of Spidey’s powers: his web-slinging. Given my clumsiness, I wasn’t sure I could pull off a series of complex grapples to get myself around the city in a smooth, flowing motion like the trailer showed.

Even if I did mess up, I could always stick a landing, dash up a building, and get going again.

Fortunately, I never had to. Spider-Man throw out a web with a touch of R2 and, in the dense New York cityscape, almost always hits something. The game’s logic for web placement was fairly good while I played, and there’s enough freedom of movement on a single sling that even if the angle wasn’t what I was gunning for, I could still make nice, smooth turns and keep the flow going. Even if I did mess up, I could always stick a landing, dash up a building, and get going again. Sailing around the city like this was by far my favorite part of the demo, and I hope there are enough interesting landmarks to explore to make it worth just floating around for hours.

Though I know it’s not a great comparison, something about this view from the sky reminded me of what I loved most about early Assassin’s Creed games–looking out over a huge city and planning my next move before setting off over the heads of everyone below, zipping across rooftops. It’s not quite the same, but the feeling of freedom was comparable.

Whatever a Spider can

Eventually, I had to stop swinging around and take out a bunch of thugs atop a roof construction site, where I got a taste of the combat in Spider-Man. With the square button, Spidey will punch, kick, and perform logical combos–circle is to dodge. Triangle shoots webs, X will jump. These four buttons can be used in combos to pull off interesting moves on enemies and counter some of their attacks. There are also certain special moves that can be executed if you fill up a Focus bar high enough by landing attacks, and that bar can also be burned to self-heal.

I enjoyed combat more than I expected. Spidey fights fluidly and intelligently, usually targeting the nearest enemy I focus my camera on and flowing from one clash to the next seamlessly. I also appreciated his ability to web sling up out of combat if things got hairy, then drop back down for a surprise attack. Spider-Man does include some stealth elements, allowing for an advantage if you can sneak up on your foes.

Find your objective

Earlier, I compared the “view from the sky” element in Spider-Man to what I had always wanted to the earlier Assassin’s Creed games, but there’s also a negative comparison to be made on those same lines. When not actively pursuing story missions, you can use a ability to search the city for trouble and go deal with the problems. This can involve stopping drug deals, chasing runaway cars, fighting off thugs, or (I presume) other activities. I worry about Spider-Man suffering from the weird, repetitive map bloat that other open world games like it suffer from, where the map is peppered with objectives and you find yourself not wanting to do any of them. Though I enjoyed the simple acts of swinging through the city and combat itself, I can see chasing cars and fighting same-faced thugs on rooftops getting real old, real fast.

To combat that, the activities will need to be diverse enough in the final game to keep everyone’s attention and preventing the map from becoming a non-stop series of pointless objectives. I don’t know yet if Spider-Man will deliver on that, but given how much I enjoyed some of the game’s other elements, I very much want it to.

It’s electric

My session concluded with a boss fight against Electro, who had escaped from prison. It took place in the lobby of a bank and mostly consisted of a familiar boss loop: dodge attacks, use ability to break boss’ shield, hit him, repeat. This seemed a little bit basic compared to what I’d seen in the trailers, but I’d be lying if I said the addition of web slinging abilities didn’t make things much more enjoyable. I liked being able to dodge attacks both in the air and on the ground, and the addition of Spidey’s web grappling and shooting abilities spiced things up somewhat.

Overall

Overall, I walked away from Spider-Man feeling happy but a bit more skeptical than I had been when I initially saw the trailer. The overall feel of the game, characters, witty banter, and the deluge of popular villains delivered on my expectations, but there was the slightest creep of hum-drum open world game elements that gave me pause. I hope that repetition was reflective only of an easygoing demo to ensure I was able to experience everything, and not an indicator of the full scope of the game. It’s a big city–there should be a lot to discover.

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Linking your Fortnite account to a PlayStation 4 is becoming a problem

Sony hasn’t opened PS4 for cross-play like other platforms have

This year at E3 2018 it was announced that Fortnite is now on the Nintendo Switch. Now you can cross-play with Fortnite on your PC, Switch, Mac, iOS, and Xbox… just not PlayStation 4.

Me 2.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) March 10, 2018

Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, expressed his desires for PS4 and Xbox to be able to cross-play together. This leaves us to assume it was most certainly a decision on Sony’s part to not allow it. Previously Sony had explained that their decision to not allow cross-play was to “protect their players’ security,” but they have chosen to not make any comment on why they’re deciding to stay out of such an inclusive platform game.

If you want to use cross-play, don’t link your account to PlayStation 4

If you create a Fortnite account and link it to your PS4, it will not allow you to log in on any other platform besides PC. This means you’ll be required to make a separate account to use on another platform. If you are a new player looking to get into Fortnite who intends on using the crossplay options make sure you link your account to anything but your PlayStation.

.@PlayStation, fix this.Not allowing me to sign-in to Fortnite Switch with my Epic account because it’s linked to PS4 is tone deaf and points more to fear than market dominance. It does the opposite of what you want — it makes me think about moving to Xbox for Fortnite. pic.twitter.com/D9xqv9aWdF

— Greg Miller (@GameOverGreggy) June 12, 2018

Basically, what I’m saying is, if you want to use the cross-play options then don’t link your Epic account to your PlayStation 4. You don’t want your account locked to a PC and PlayStation when you have so much more abilities to play with a lot more people by keeping it connected to literally any of your other platforms. On top of this, your PlayStation 4 account purchases don’t transfer to your Xbox, Switch or PC accounts. But, if all your friends are playing on PlayStation 4, and you have no intention of linking it to another account, then you have nothing to worry about.

Unlinking your Fortnite account from PlayStation

There are a few warnings we want you to know before you do this. You will lose just about everything connected to your account as you can not carry it from one console to another. These warnings and instructions will work for PSN ID, Nintendo account, Xbox gamertag, or another external account.

• All of your saved data lives on your Epic account, not your connected account.
• If you disconnect your PSN ID from the Epic account that is currently connected to, any purchases, stats, and saved data will be lost.
• Platform Locks on Fortnite cannot be circumvented, even by replacing one connected account with another.

If you’ve read the warnings and still want to disconnect your PS4 account so that you can connect it to another platform:

Go to your Connected Accounts page.
Click the DISCONNECT button below the external account in question.

Now your account is free to connect to any console you so wish to connect it to.

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Judge Approves AT&T and Time Warner Merger

A planned merger between AT&T and Time Warner can move forward, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled this afternoon, reports CNBC.

AT&T’s $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner has been on hold since November, when the United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit to stop the merger, based on the argument that it would result in higher bills and fewer options for consumers.

According to the court’s ruling, the merger between the two companies is legal, and no conditions were imposed on its approval.

In a statement, AT&T said that it is pleased with the merger and plans to move forward with closing the deal on or before June 20.

“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. We thank the Court for its thorough and timely examination of the evidence, and we compliment our colleagues at the Department of Justice on their dedicated representation of the government. We look forward to closing the merger on or before June 20 so we can begin to give consumers video entertainment that is more affordable, mobile, and innovative.”

The Justice Department, meanwhile, said that it was disappointed with the court’s ruling.

“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. We will closely review the Court’s opinion and consider next steps in light of our commitment to preserving competition for the benefit of American consumers.”

Today’s decision could have an impact on other significant “vertical” mergers where distribution companies like AT&T purchase companies that make content, like Time Warner. Comcast, for example, has already announced plans to bid on Fox’s assets in an attempt to beat out Disney.
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Vivo Nex hands-on: Welcome to the all-screen future

The day many of us have been waiting for has finally arrived. A truly bezel-free smartphone is here! Sort of. Many have tried and many have failed, with the much-maligned notch emerging as the compromised offspring of those failed attempts to rid the smartphone of bezels. The Vivo Nex is the closest to a truly bezel-free smartphone we’ve seen come to market. It’s has very few compromises and no notch.

The phone fuses the in-display fingerprint scanner demo shown at CES 2018 and the drool-worthy Apex concept phone’s front-facing camera from MWC 2018, and we got to hands on with it.

Unfortunately, the phone everyone wants — with a look long promised by science fiction — not everyone will be able to get. The Vivo Nex is currently only slated for a Chinese release. It may come to other select markets in time, but a truly global release isn’t likely. Given Huawei and ZTE’s woes in the U.S., one can hardly blame Vivo for focusing on more friendly markets. Selling units isn’t Vivo’s main focus here though; demonstrating truly cutting-edge technology is.

Science fiction has long promised us that smartphones of the future would look like the Vivo Nex.

If U.S. hostility to Chinese smartphones means the first bezel-free device you buy isn’t made by Vivo, that’s perfectly fine. Vivo says the Nex is more about taking a step into the industry’s future than it is about being number one. To that end, Vivo senior vice president Alex Feng says he hopes the Nex gets the industry to “continue pondering ‘what’s next?’ in this mobile experience journey.”

For what it’s worth, I wish everyone would have a chance to buy the Vivo Nex, because it truly feels like a momentous turning point. It feels somehow unfair that not everyone will get to experience such a significant device.

As with most smartphones these days, it all starts with the screen. As bezels have shrunk, so too have the defining features on the front of most phones. The Vivo Nex features a 6.59-inch Super AMOLED panel with a 19.3:9 aspect ratio and Full HD+ resolution (1,080 x 2,316, 338ppi). As with most other OLED panels, it offers deep blacks and colors that pop. There’s also an always-on display option for showing missed calls and message notifications.

The Vivo Nex does away with the bezel above the display, only keeping a very slight chin at the bottom. In case you’re interested, the bezels measure 1.71 mm on the sides, 2.16mm on top and 5mm below the display. Because the Vivo Nex pushes the boundaries with a 91.24 percent screen-to-body ratio, there’s no room for the usual array of sensors, cameras and speakers you’d find on a traditionally-proportioned smartphone. Those have now moved under the glass or inside the device’s body.

The earpiece speaker has been removed altogether. Vivo’s Screen SoundCasting technology now use the display itself as a speaker. Vivo says this not only releases the Nex from the burden of a top bezel but also adds “more powerful bass and softer, smoother treble.” From what I could hear at the noisy launch event it sounded fine, but we’ll give it some more rigorous testing in the full Vivo Nex review. The rest of the Nex’s audio comes from a single bottom-firing speaker. There’s also a 3.5mm headphone port up top, in case you were worried.

The earpiece speaker and fingerprint scanner live under the display glass while the front-facing camera slides up from the top of the Vivo Nex only when needed.

The in-display fingerprint scanner is the other Big Deal in the Vivo Nex. While the Vivo X21 UD and Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS also featured such a scanner, Vivo was the first to demo the tech back at CES 2018. The tech is now in its third generation, and while it won’t offer device unlocking quite as quick as a modern capacitive finger scanner, the slight delay you’ll experience will be far outweighed by the simple satisfaction of unlocking your phone through the screen. According to Vivo, the new scanner provides a 10 percent speed increase, 50 percent higher accuracy and a 30 percent lower fake recognition rate than the under-glass scanners in previous devices.

The front-facing camera is hidden in the upper frame of the phone, popping up when you launch the front-facing camera. It’s a novel and, perhaps counterintuitively, kind of “obvious” solution to the bezel-free problem. Like Oppo’s rotating camera on the Oppo N1 or a plastic cover to obscure the webcam on your laptop, sometimes a simple solution is best. That said, I totally understand the misgivings many have aired over making the operation of your front-facing camera dependent on a piece of mechanical tech that could fail.

The camera mechanism has undergone extensive testing and can be raised and lowered 50,000 times and withstand up to 45kg of thrust force when extended.

To address the “failure question,” Vivo assures me that the front-facing camera can push up to 500g in repeated trials and its micro-stepping motor, independent drive ICs and control algorithms allow the camera to move with absolute precision. With a special buffer structure design, the camera has also undergone reliability tests such as drop resistance and dust resistance tests. According to Vivo, the camera can be raised and lowered repeatedly up to 50,000 times and withstand up to 45kg of thrust force when extended. Only time will tell what the failure rate of the camera elevator will be in real-world usage.

Speaking of cameras, the Vivo Nex has a dual camera setup on the back. The camera has a 12MP f/1.8 sensor with 1.4-micron pixel size and both optical image stabilization and electronic image stabilization. The secondary camera on the back is a 5MP f/2.4 lens and the front-facing camera is an 8MP f/2.0 shooter. We didn’t have time for usable test shots at the launch event, but we can tell you shutter lag is a thing here. Stay tuned for a full gallery of images.

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Vivo Nex specs: More than meets the eye

The Vivo Nex may have two very eye-catching features – that elevating front-facing camera mechanism and an all-screen display – but the rest of the Vivo Nex specs are just as impressive as you could …

Vivo Nex announced: Full-screen powerhouse

Hate the notch? You’ll love the new Vivo Nex. There’s no cutout at the top, yet its bezels are still tantalizingly thin. It may look like a prop from a sci-fi movie, but it’s a …

The camera app offers a range of aspect ratios and shutter triggers (including touch, voice, and a palm gesture). You can also reassign a long press of the volume down button to quickly launch the camera when the screen is off. If the last camera you were using was the front-facing one, the lens will slide up instantly while the camera app launches. There’s a full manual mode, HDR, portrait mode, and Live Photos. The front-facing camera only shoots 1080p video, but the main camera shoots 4K.

The Vivo Nex’s glass back features a nice diffracting pattern beneath the glass which creates rainbow colors in the right light. Despite the glass, the Nex lacks wireless charging, an IP rating, or NFC for contactless payment systems like Google Pay. The omission of any or all of these might be a dealbreaker for some.

As far as the rest of the phone goes though, there are no compromises. The Vivo Nex  packs in the Snapdragon 845 with Qualcomm’s AI Engine and the Adreno 630 GPU, 8GB of RAM, variants with 128 or 256GB of internal storage, a 4,000mAh battery with fast charging and Android 8.1 Oreo underneath Vivo’s FunTouch 4.0 software layer.

The software experience on most Chinese phones won’t appeal to most westerners, but a quick dip into the pool of alternate Android launchers will manage to cure some of what ails you. We’ll dive deeper into what the software offers in the full Vivo Nex review, but most of what you’d expect from an Android device is present and accounted for, it’s simply presented in a less palatable fashion than, say, the Pixel 2.

There’s a dedicated AI button on the left for summoning Vivo’s Jovi Intelligent Voice Assistant. You can change what the button does in the settings, but only to the image recognizer, voice assistant, or nothing — there’s no option for switching it to your virtual assistant of choice. There’s also a ton of AI-this and AI-that, primarily in the camera. Most of this will probably not appeal, and often doesn’t rely all that heavily on AI at all. We’ll cover that further in the review too.

Out of the box, the Vivo Nex has gesture navigation turned on. Swipe up from one of three spots on the bottom of the screen to go back, go home or open recent apps. You can also turn on on-screen nav buttons if you prefer. Vivo also lets you rearrange the order to put the back button (or back gesture) on the left side where it belongs. If you opt for gesture navigation and would like a visual cue, you can choose between horizontal lines or small dots. You can remove everything from the bottom of the screen once your used to it.

The Vivo Nex will be available in China (and possibly other select markets in future). It’s priced at 4998 yuan (~$780) for the 256GB version, while the 128GB version will cost 4498 yuan (~$702).

Like its screen-to-body ratio, the Vivo Nex comes very close to doing everything but falls slightly short. Even in my brief time with it, I noticed a few things that will niggle some people. Camera lag, a slow(ish) fingerprint scanner, bloatware, as well as the lack of an IP rating, NFC, and wireless charging are all worth noting. In all honesty, those absences are relatively minor, and frequently don’t appear on “normal” phones with big bezels and regularly placed fingerprint scanners.

Where the Nex fails, it more than makes up for in the sheer coolness, the novelty, the audacity of what it promises.

In some ways the Vivo Nex shouldn’t be considered a normal phone and shouldn’t be judged by the same standards. It goes somewhere no one else has gone before and it does so surprisingly well. However, it’s also a phone in the real world, affected by things like price, availability, update reliability, feature set and so on. It’s a first-gen product, to be sure, and as such we should expect a few things to not be quite perfect. Perhaps this is why Vivo is more interested in showcasing tech with the Nex than it is in taking the world by storm.

The Nex more than makes up for its problems in sheer coolness, novelty, and the audacity of what it promises. We are literally on the brink of smartphones with all their traditional front-facing components and sensors hidden out of sight or underneath the display. The Vivo Nex, even its name, points to a time so tantalizingly close we can almost touch it, even though it still hasn’t fully arrived.

Electrified ‘fog harp’ could make power plants more sustainable

Each year, hundreds of billions of gallons of usable water are lost to the atmosphere, often billowing out of the giant smokestacks that have become a symbol of humanity’s energy excess.

But this fall, the rooftop of the Central Utility Power Plant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be home to an innovative new tool that could someday help make power plants more sustainable.

Developed by a team of MIT engineers, the system improves on the design of “fog harps,” devices that act as nets to capture water vapor when air flows through them. In a study published last week in the journal Science Advances, the researchers show how this system may allow power plants to function more sustainably and fight water scarcity by recycling otherwise wasted water.

Power plants consume a remarkable amount of water to keep them cool. In the United States, 39 percent of all the fresh water pulled from lakes, river, and reservoirs is set aside for this purpose.

“Power plants are one of the largest users of water, mostly for their cooling needs,” Maher Damak, a mechanical engineering PhD candidate at MIT and co-author of the paper, told Digital Trends. “Most plants use cooling towers that make water evaporate to cool down the plant and lose large amounts of vapor that can be seen as a plume coming out of these towers. We have invented a new method to efficiently capture large amounts of that fresh water so it can be reused.”

The technology invented by Damak and his colleagues makes significant improvements on the design of fog harps, net-like devices made of plastic or wire mesh that capture and collect droplets of water as air passes through. But fog harps typically collect just one to three percent of passing vapor, because the airflow — and thus the water molecules — tends to veer around the wires and through the holes.

When the MIT researchers zapped the mesh with a beam of electrically charged particles in the lab, the mesh turned into a sort of magnet, attracting the vapor toward the wires and causing droplets to form in more abundance. The droplets then dripped down the mesh and collected in a pan below. The researchers estimate that, with their system installed, power plants could capture 20 to 30 percent of the water lost from their cooling towers.

“The product will be retrofitted to existing cooling towers in power plants,” Damak said. “It will consist of a dome-shaped mesh that is placed on top of cooling towers just above charging electrodes. The water from cooling tower plumes will collect on the mesh and drip to the periphery, where it can be collected and sent back to the power plant cooling cycle, or to other uses.”

This recycled water may then be used to cool the power plant, piped to water-scarce regions, or offer substitutes for desalination systems.

Moving forward, the researchers will test if their technology works at scale. They’re creating a full-scale version to be installed at MIT’s Central Utility Power Plant, which provides much of the campus’ electricity, and plan to install at other locations through their startup, Infinite Cooling.

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Shop Stories, not stores, with Instagram’s latest update

Screenshot by Instagram / Image by Negative Space on Pexels

Stickers are more than just photo bling — inside Instagram Stories, a new sticker makes it possible for fans to shop for the items in the photos. Announced on Tuesday, June 12, Instagram users can now shop inside Stories, expanding the earlier option of shopping from the Instagram feed.

Stories that users can shop are marked with a shopping bag icon inside a sticker. Tapping on the shopping sticker takes users to additional details about the product, with an option to buy. In the first images of the feature, Instagram shared a simple text-free shopping bag sticker along with a shopping bag sticker that lists the product name.

Shopping stickers are first launching to select brands on Instagram, but the platform will begin rolling out the tools to additional businesses soon. For Instagrammers that have tried using Google to find an item inside a photo, the feature is likely welcome, while others may see the shopping stickers as one more way ads are coming to the newer sharing format. 

The inspiration for the new shopping stickers stems from a survey designed to pinpoint what helps capture users attention in the Stories format best. In the survey, some Instagrammers said they watched Stories to stay up to date on brands, get an insider view, and discover new products. Of course, Instagram will likely get a cut of the sales that stem from Stories.

Around 300 million users now use Stories on Instagram, the sharing format that creates a slideshow of photos and videos, then deletes it all to start fresh the following day. As the format grows, Instagram continues to expand the available features, including a share option for Stories, bulk uploads, a type mode, and expanded Stories ads. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Instagram’s parent company Facebook, says that Stories will continue to be a focus for the company as the format continues to grow.

The announcement has the existing shopping options on Instagram bleeding over into Stories. Inside the news feed, businesses can already tag products that are featured inside a photo, allowing users to tap to find more details or navigate to the full online store. The update brings a similar feature to Stories by allowing fast access to details on the products inside the photo by tapping the sticker.

Like the Stories format itself, shopping Stories isn’t an Instagram original idea. Earlier in 2018, Snapchat launched its own store for merchandise that uses the Stories format, with users swiping up to buy.

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How to convert FLAC to MP3

While nearly all audio devices and multimedia players support MP3 playback, only a handful of them currently support FLAC. Thankfully, there are a myriad of ways you can convert FLAC to MP3, if you favor convenience over audio quality. The resulting file may not sound as nice, but at least you can play it. Here’s how to Convert FLAC to MP3.

If you are interested in other specific conversion scenarios, here’s how to convert M4A files to MP3, WMA to MP3, MP4 to MP3S, and even vinyl to MP3. We can also help out if you are looking for video converters.

Note: Some of the following apps are freeware, which often comes with unwanted add-ons. We suggest that you select the custom installation option, and follow along closely during the installation process. Keep your eye open for instructions about installing other apps, changing your homepage, and other actions that may lead to unwanted changes to your machine. Then, choose whether you want to install or forgo these bundled extras.

Use fre:ac — Free

Formerly known as BonkEnc, fre:ac is a free audio converter that offers users a trove of options but is still easy to use. It’s available for download on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Once you install fre:ac, open it.

Step 1: Select your files

In fre:ac, click the far left icon on the toolbar. This will open a dialog box where you can browse file on your computer and select the specific files you want to convert.

Once you’ve selected all the files you want, click Open.

Step 2: Select the audio quality you want.

Fre:ac will convert your files to what it deems “standard” quality, but if you listen to music on nice equipment and want to get as much quality as you can out of your mp3s, you’ll want to fiddle with the encoding settings.

Go to options, then choose Configure selected encoder (by default, fre:ac should be using the LAME MP3 Encoder).

Under Presets, choose Custom settings.

From here you can decide whether to use VBR (variable bit rate, in which the encoder compresses different segments depending on how demanding they are), ABR (average bitrate, in which the encoder compresses different parts of the file to try and maintain an average bitrate throughout), and CBR (constant bitrate, in which bitrate is the same throughout the file).

Spend even a little time on audiophile forums, and you’ll see some intense fighting about whether VBR is CBR is better (or whether it even matters). To keep things simple, choose CBR and set the bitrate to 320 kbps. This should give you great sound quality, although the file sizes won’t be as small.

Step 3: Choose where to save the new files

Near the bottom of the screen, you should see a field labeled Output folder. Click the Open button to the right to open a dialog box from which you can select the folder you want.

Step 4: Convert!

Once you’ve selected the files to convert and a folder to send the new files to, just hit the button with a play symbol on the toolbar to start the encoding process. Depending on how many files you’ve added and the quality you’ve chosen, this may take a little while.

Freemake Free Audio Converter (Windows) — free

Freemake offers software with multiple options for managing music files and converting them to whatever format you desire. The software is compatible with Windows 10, highly-versatile, and simple to download — the “free download” buttons are a great starting point.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed Freemake, launch the application and import your audio files by clicking on the +Audio button and locating the files on your hard drive. Chose whatever format you want the files converted into, where you want them, and then convert away. You can reconvert them at any time after you’ve downloaded the files, too. Like many converters, Freemake allows you to adjust channels, bitrate, sample rate, and a host of other facets, allowing for greater quality control. You can also upload music to Google Drive or Dropbox, merge songs, and carry out a slew of other basic actions.

Audacity (Windows) — free

Audacity is a different sort of beast, one geared toward those who want to manage their songs and sounds using a full audio suite. The software is free and open-source, which is great for managing a large, customized library with many different audio formats.

With Audacity, you can record live audio and playback, cut and splice audio files, add effects, and convert all of your old formats  — including tapes and vinyl.

Best of all, it can edit and convert a range of audio formats, including WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis. If you’re looking to convert analog to digital, or convert between various digital formats, this is the way to go.

FlacSquisher (Windows) — free

FlacSquisher is a library converter – in other words, it’s designed to convert entire libraries, or at least long lists of audio files, at one time. It’s a very simple setup, but also has some useful tool for people who want to run more complex conversion filters for their music. Choose the FLAC convert option, and then list any file types in the “File extension to ignore” box that you want the conversion to skip over, while listing any file types that you want to make copies of in the “File extensions to copy” box. This allows you to turn only certain types of audio files to FLAC, which may be just what you’re looking for.

To MP3 Converter Free (MacOS) — free

One of the most popular audio converters in the Mac Store is the apt-titled To MP3 Converter Free, an easy-to-use utility for converting from one of 200 audio and video formats to MP3. Of course, the software supports FLAC files, and the process for making the conversion couldn’t be simpler. The software also allows you to change the output from a constant bitrate to a variable bitrate, transfer tags from the source file, and adjust the volume to the maximum level.

To convert a FLAC file to MP3 using To MP3 Converter Free, just select your destination folder and drag the files over. If you need to batch convert folders or files, then you can purchase an annual subscription ($7) that also allows you to load tags and artwork from a network source, add fade in and fade out, and trim silence before and after songs.

MediaHuman Audio Converter (MacOS) — free

MediaHuman’s reliable audio converter is designed to work well with iTunes, and the design itself will probably remind of the iTunes format. In addition to exporting directly to iTunes when you are done, the app also supports batch conversion, audio extraction from video files, and innate Mac folder structure (so files don’t get switched around). If all your songs are based on a Mac, this is a versatile and dependable converter – just don’t expect it to offer much in the way of editing or sound adjustment.

Cloud Convert (Google Chrome) — free

Cloud Convert is technically a web-based converter — albeit, a useful one — but it also lives as a Chrome add-on, which makes this the first stop for Chromebook users. Pick up the add-on, open it, and you’re ready to go.

Cloud Converter isn’t just an audio converter, either. It can convert pretty much everything, including documents, videos, images, ebooks, and a laundry list of other types of content. Luckily, the service can easily handle FLAC and MP3 files. It even works in conjunction with Google Drive, allowing you to pull files from the service and store them online when you’re finished, rendering it another great option for Chromebook users.

However, it’s important to note that Cloud Convert doesn’t house extensive customization options like some of our other picks. You can specify things like bitrate, but more in-depth controls are largely absent. Cloud Convert is, therefore, better when you want to keep things simple.

Online Audio Converter (Google Chrome) — free

There’s simple, and then there’s ultra simple. If you don’t want to download anything and prefer to finish the process in a few seconds, stop by Online Audio Converter. Open the file you want to convert — whether it be via local storage, a URL, Google Drive, or Dropbox — and pick your desired audio format. The Advanced settings button will let you adjust bitrate, sample rate, channels, and other features, while the Edit track info button is self-explanatory. When finished, hit the Convert button.

The only problem is that batch conversions take a little more time with Online Audio Converter than they do with some of our other choices. The site was clearly designed with smaller conversions in mind.

Zamzar (Google Chrome) — free

Zamzar is an oldie but a goodie—a converter that’s been around for a few years but still delivers. While it gets mentioned frequently as a video converter, it’s also handy for audio files. The process is a similar 4-step online setup, and openly asks you to send in emails if you have any questions about a weird file that isn’t converting. Try using it as a resource if you run into problems with other conversion processes.

Xilisoft Audio Converter (Windows/MacOS) — $30

Converters that you have to pay for are well suited for long-term conversions, fiddling with sound editing, and dealing with strange formats. If you work in sound editing or you’re serious about music, it may be worthwhile to pay for something like Xilisoft Audio Converter.

The software handles pretty much every audio file out there, as well as a plethora of video files, and it has customization options beyond anything we’ve mentioned thus far. Xilisoft’s offering also allows you to add new audio effects and specify output size, for instance, and convert both individual files and batches. Needless to say, it takes audio conversion to a whole new level.

NCH Switch (Windows/MacOS) — $30

NCH offers a full suite of audio- and video-editing programs, but the one you should be most interested in is Switch Sound Format Converter Plus for Home. It supports more than 40 audio formats, can import playlists, and automatically adds song information via the web.

There are useful features, too, such as automatic audio normalization and the ability to listen to the resulting audio before you actually initiate the conversion. There’s even a free version of the software if you don’t want the full set of features, though, it is nice to be able to mix and match to create your own sound-editing solution.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best free recording software
• How to convert your videos from MKV to MP4
• The best MP3 music player you can buy (and 3 alternatives)
• The best free music players
• The best PDF editors

Apple’s MacBook Pro problem will make you want to backup your files ASAP

After user outcry over keyboard issues on the latest MacBook Pro laptops, Apple has another problem on its hands. This time, the issue affects the laptop’s logic board and the solid-state drive. Apple claims that the problem is only present on the entry-level MacBook Pro with the function row and isn’t found on higher-end configurations with the Touch Bar.

Due to an internal glitch in the laptop, when either the solid-state drive or the logic board fails, both components need to be replaced. “Apple has identified a specific population of MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, two Thunderbolt 3 ports) units requiring both solid-state drives and the main logic board to be replaced when either has a functional failure,” Apple said in a repair document that was obtained by MacRumors.

It’s unclear what is causing the simultaneous failure of both components if only one component is replaced during a repair, but Apple advised its authorized technicians that repair systems will display a message that “indicate both the SSD and MLB must be replaced when either component has a functional failure.” The issue is covered under Apple’s warranty and AppleCare Plus extended warranty as long as the MacBook Pro was not taken in for service due to water or accidental damage.

It’s speculated that Apple was able to identify the problem prior to the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference event earlier in June, resulting in shortages and extended shipping times for only the entry-level MacBook Pro model. Due to delayed delivery estimates at that time, some had hoped that Apple was winding down MacBook Pro inventory ahead of a hardware refresh, which could have delivered upgraded Intel eighth-generation processors. However, that wasn’t the case and Apple made no hardware announcements during its developer-centric WWDC keynote.

If you’re affected by system failure due to a faulty logic board or a defective solid-state drive, you can visit Apple’s support page to schedule an in-store Genius Bar appointment at a local Apple retail store or talk to a service representative over the phone. Fortunately, if you bring your MacBook Pro for either an SSD or logic board repair, both replacements would be completed at the same time, with a turnaround estimated at five to seven days. Given that the SSD is affected, MacBook Pro owners should maintain current backups of their files in case of a failure affecting either the drive or the logic board.

Prior to the simultaneous SSD and logic board failures, users have complained that due to the new butterfly key switch design on the redesigned MacBook and MacBook Pro, the keyboard was twice as susceptible to failure, and out-of-warranty repairs are more costly than with Apple’s older keyboard design. Buyers in the market for a new laptop can also visit our guide to the best laptops.

Editors’ Recommendations

• MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touch Bar review
• Failure rate of MacBook Pro ‘butterfly’ keyboards is double that of older models
• MacBook Pro owners file class action lawsuit over keyboard issues
• The best MacBook Pro you can buy is on sale for $1,000 at Best Buy
• Another Mac-less Apple event has come and gone

U.K. drone company sets flying record that could be a big boost for autonomy

You probably don’t need us to tell you that drones are going to be huge. Whether it’s deliveries, mapping, surveillance, or myriad other applications, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have the opportunity to be transformative in our lives. But for that to happen they will need to be let off their leash by regulatory authorities — and prove that they can be trusted to be used in a way that doesn’t abuse the faith that we are putting in them.

Lately, it seems that authorities around the world are starting to loosen up. Recently, the U.S. government introduced a new drone experimentation program that loosens certain restrictions on 10 tech giants. Now the U.K. government has awarded SenSat, the country’s largest drone data provider, permission to carry out flights beyond their pilot’s visual line of sight inside complex airspace, which is a major limiting factor in current commercial drone operations. As a result, SenSat this week set a new record, with a fixed-wing drone flying 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) beyond the pilot’s visible line of sight, breaking the country’s existing record by a factor of 10.

While other such flights have taken place on offshore in very remote areas, carrying out one this ambitious in one of the world’s most complex and crowded airspaces is an enormous step forward for drone operations.

“The largest challenge was regulatory rather than technical,” James Dean, founder of SenSat, told Digital Trends. “That is why it is so significant — a lot of the technologies exist in raw format, so being able to be accommodated by a fairly slow-moving regulatory framework, and indeed accelerated, really highlighted the U.K. government’s [focus] on this.”

SenSat

For the flight, the U.K.’s Civilian Aviation Authority set up a temporary danger zone, barring other aircraft from entering the airspace during the 40 minutes in which the record-breaking flight was carried out.

According to Dean, the main technical challenges of the flight involved maintaining communications links and battery life. Communications remained at 99.8 percent uptime during the flight, thanks to the drone being linked into the 3G cellular network. Since this is the same connection as mobile phones, it provides strong connectivity wherever there is a mobile signal. The drone, meanwhile, had a possible 120 minutes of maximum flight time using its batteries, meaning that the record-breaking flight consumed just one-third of its potential flight time.

“Drones to date have been largely stunted in their impact because there is still a significant regulatory need to have a human supervise the autonomous robot,” Dean continued. “The point in an autonomous robot is to increase machine automation and reduce manual labor. This allows us to do that at over 30 times.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Switzerland’s new air traffic control system to put drones, planes in same skies
• Yuneec Breeze review
• A sensor-packed exosuit lets you fly a drone by pretending to be one
• University of Michigan hopes new drone facility pushes students to great heights
• Halo Drone Pro review

Common Motorola Moto G6, G6 Plus, and G6 Play problems and how to fix them

Simon Hill/Digital Trends

The Moto G6 is a fantastic smartphone if you need something capable on a budget. But no phone is perfect, and whether you’re using the Moto G6, the G6 Plus, or the G6 Play, you might still run into some issues.

If you’re experiencing a technical hitch on your beloved Moto G6, check out this list of the most common Moto G6 problems and issues, and see whether there’s an easy fix to get your phone running smoothly again.

Issue: Wi-Fi disconnection issues

Some Moto G6 Plus owners are reporting the Wi-Fi connections on their phones are extremely unreliable. Connections are lost to local Wi-Fi networks every five minutes or so, disrupting streaming services and generally being a nuisance. While it’s claimed that the connection reconnects almost immediately, it’s still enough to cause issues during day-to-day use.

Unfortunately for Moto G6 owners, this seems to be something of a problem within the Moto G’s lineage, as the Moto G5  range also had its fair share of this same issue last year . It’s an issue which, as of this writing, have not yet been fully resolved.

Possible solutions:

• While an official line on the problem doesn’t seem to have materialized yet, some random dude on the internet may have struck upon a possible solution. While not endorsed by the official forum moderators due to the user’s phone being the wrong model, this was the method that worked for them.
  • Boot your device into Recovery Mode by shutting off your phone, then hold down the volume up and power button until Fastboot Mode appears on your display. Use your volume keys and power button to select Recovery mode.
  • Then select the option to Wipe cache partition. Be careful not to hit the factory reset option just above it.
  • Reboot your phone.
  • Once restarted, you need to reset your network settings. To do this, navigate to your Settings menu, then hit System > Reset > Network Settings Reset > Reset Settings. At this point, you may be asked to enter your security password or PIN. Then tap Reset Settings again to confirm.
  • Finally, open your Wi-Fi settings, by heading to Settings > Network & internet > Wi-Fi > Wi-Fi preferences > Advanced > Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep > Always.
• For the Moto G5’s problem, some people suggested turning off Wi-Fi Scanning. Go to Settings > Location > Options (three vertical dots icon) > Scanning > Turn off Wi-Fi Scanning.

Solution:

• If the above solutions don’t work for your device, then there’s nothing else for it — it’s time to contact your vendor and get the phone replaced.

Issue: Slow Wi-Fi

While having spotty internet can be bad, having consistently slow internet can be even worse. One Reddit user has reported shoddy speeds of 1Mbps on their Moto G6 Plus. Thankfully, that same user reported a simple fix that should resolve issues you’re encountering.

Solution:

•  Just hop over to your Settings app, then hit Wi-Fi > Wi-Fi Preferences > Advanced, then change Network Rating Provider from Google to None. No-one’s yet been able to say why this fix works, but it’s certainly worth a shot if your speed is struggling.

Issue: Battery not charging

Regardless of the model of the Moto G6 you pick, you should be getting at least a day’s worth of usage out of it without too much trouble. If you’re finding your Moto G6’s battery just isn’t holding up anywhere near as well, or is refusing to hold charge even while recharging, then your battery might need recalibrating. There’s an easy way to calibrate the Moto G6’s battery.

Solution:

• Battery calibration is easy, but it can take some time. Motorola recommends doing this just before you go to bed at night, to make sure it has enough time to fully run through the process.
  • Turn off your Moto G6 by holding down the power key for around 7-10 seconds.
  • After letting go of the power key, the phone should automatically reboot.
  • Plug in the original charger that came with your phone and let it charge fully overnight.
• If the above process doesn’t work, it could simply be that you’ve ended up with a damaged battery somehow. Don’t panic; contact your vendor or Motorola, and you should be able to swap it for a functional phone.

Issue: Speaker issues/speakers not working

While seemingly not a common issue, there have been reports of Moto G6 speakers cutting out during use, and refusing to turn back on until headphones are inserted or a Bluetooth speaker is connected. This issue seems unrelated to current usage of the speaker, and users have reported the issue happening during YouTube videos, music streaming, and phone calls.

Solution:

• User Jourdansway seems to have figured out a way to fix the issue by forcing the phone to combine stereo channels into a single, mono channel.
  • Access your Settings app, then Accessibility > Audio & On-screen Text > Mono Audio. From here, simply turn on the option for Combine channels when playing audio, and your phone’s sound should be completely restored.

Issue: Colors not showing properly

This one’s more difficult to spot, and if you don’t have reason to compare your Moto G6’s screen with another, then you might not even notice it at all. However, in some cases it’s more than obvious there’s something afoot — such as red colors on a Moto G6 showing as orange or brown.

Thankfully, this one’s simply a rogue color correction gone wrong — and it’s easy to fix.

Solution:

• Color correction is a vital part of accessibility options for users who can’t see certain colors, but when accidentally activated, it can look like there’s a bizarre fault with the display in action. Turning it off is easy.
  • Access your Settings app once again. Then tap Accessibility and make sure Toggle Off Color Correction is set correctly.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Motorola Moto G6 review
• Moto G6 vs. Moto G6 Play: Is the G6 worth the extra cash?
• Moto G6 Plus review
• Moto G6 vs. Moto G5: Is it time to crown a new budget king?
• Here’s everything you need to know about the Moto G6 and G6 Play