Get a free Chromebook and microSD with an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S9 or S9+

Sign me up!

Update: This offer is also available via Amazon for a limited time, though no microSD card is included.

Through August 13, Samsung is offering a free 11.6″ Chromebook 3 with purchases of unlocked Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ devices. You could also elect to receive a $200 discount off any Samsung Chromebook with your purchase instead. Prices on the Samsung Galaxy S9 start at $720 for the 64GB device, while the S9+ starts at $840.

The Chromebook isn’t the only freebie you’ll pick up with your new phone though. Samsung is also including a microSD card to double your phone’s storage. The card you receive will be equivalent in storage size to the phone you choose, so if you pick a device with 256GB internal storage, you’ll also receive a 256GB microSD card which would take your phone’s available storage above 500GB.

Samsung’s Chromebook 3 features 2GB RAM and 16GB memory, however, you can choose one with 4GB RAM for just an additional $20 which is highly recommended, or an option with 32GB memory and 4GB RAM for an additional $30. You’ll see these options come during checkout, along with some discounted Samsung accessories that you can add to your order as well. The microSD card will be added to your cart automatically.

Students can save even further on their order today (up to $63 off) by signing up with a verifiable .edu email address. That offer also extends to alumni and staff, bringing the price of the S9 down to just $665.99.

Unsure if the S9 is for you? You might want to take a look through our recent “three months later” review of the device and the original review we published to get a feel for its specs and limitations.

See at Samsung

Samsung Galaxy S7 Oreo update: Which versions have received it?

Follow Oreo’s journey to the S7 series right here.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 is far from Samsung’s latest and greatest, but it’s still kicking thanks to an update to Android Oreo. The new software has recently started making its way to the S7 and S7 Edge, and these are the versions of which it’s arrived on so far.

United States

AT&T

Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge owners started receiving the long-overdue Oreo update on Saturday, June 9, and it’s available as build number G93xAUCU4CRE4.

The update comes in at 1789MB (at least for the S7 Edge) and comes with the April 2018 security patch. That’s pretty outdated at this point, but it’s better than what we had before Oreo’s arrival.

Verizon

Oh, Verizon. Big Red tried rolling out the Oreo update for the S7 and S7 Edge twice, and each time, pulled it without much explanation. However, assuming that third time’s the charm, this third (and hopefully final) release of Oreo for the Verizon Galaxy S7 series should be the real deal.

Android 8.0 Oreo started hitting S7 handsets on Verizon shortly after AT&T on Monday, June 11 and the firmware version is updated to G930VVRU4CRE5 and G935VVRU4CRE5 for the S7 and S7 Edge, respectively.

Similar to AT&T, the April 2018 security patch is included with the update.

Sprint

Following AT&T and Verizon, Sprint began updating its Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge during the week of June 18.

This is the exact same Oreo update you’ll find on other carriers, meaning you’ll get features like Google’s Autofill for easier password entry, notification dots, picture-in-picture video, etc.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile announced its Oreo update for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge on June 29.

Oreo began rolling out to phones starting the week of June 29, so be sure to keep an eye out for it!

Unlocked

Nearly two months after their carrier counterparts, the unlocked Galaxy S7 and S7 edge models, models G930U and G935U respectively, have begun receiving the Oreo update. Though the build only contains the April 2018 security update, it’s still nice to see that all S7 models are now running the same software.

Canada

Rogers / Fido

Rogers, one of the largest Canadian carriers, recently updated its Android Oreo release schedule for its supported phones to reveal that 8.0 Oreo is heading to the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge on Monday, June 11.

Also, since Fido is owned by Rogers, anyone that purchased a Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge through Fido should expect Oreo to arrive on their phones beginning on that same day.

International

UK

According to various reports on Reddit, the unlocked version of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have begun receiving over-the-air updates that bump them up to Android 8.0 Oreo / Samsung Experience 9.0 – the same software found on the Galaxy S9 series.

The model numbers getting the update include SM-G930F and SM-G935F, and Oreo should change their build numbers to G930FXXU2ERD5 and G935FXXU2ERD5, respectively.

You’ll know you’ve been graced with Oreo’s good fortune when you have a 1.27GB update file waiting for you.

Updated July 24, 2018: This article has been updated with information about the unlocked Galaxy S7. Enjoy your new update!

Android Oreo

• Android Oreo review!
• Everything new in Android Oreo
• How to get Android Oreo on your Pixel or Nexus
• Oreo will make you love notifications again
• Will my phone get Android Oreo?
• Join the Discussion

iOS Grew U.S. Market Share This Spring Thanks to ‘Unprecedented Depth’ of Price Options as Android ‘Felt the Heat’

In the United States, iOS saw significant growth in the three months ending June 2018, with market share up 5.9 percentage points to 38.7 percent as tracked in the newest data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Helping to boost iOS performance were sales for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, together accounting for nearly one in five smartphones sold in the time period.

Apple’s other flagship smartphone from 2017, the iPhone X, was the fourth best-selling device during the April–June 2018 period in the United States. As iOS grows in the United States, Samsung and LG smartphones have “felt the heat” recently, with Android’s operating system dropping 4.5 percentage points in the U.S. market during this time, down to 61 percent.

Kantar Worldpanel’s Dominic Sunnebo explains that iPhones made up eight out of the ten best-selling smartphones in the three months ending in June, thanks in part to Apple’s “unprecedented depth” across the price spectrum of its smartphones. Currently, customers interested in iPhone can start as low as $349 for the iPhone SE, or opt for the high-end 256GB iPhone X at $1,149.00.

“Apple continues to wield huge power in the US market, with iPhone models making up eight out of the ten best-selling models in the past three months. Apple currently enjoys unprecedented depth across the smartphone price spectrum, ranging from the iPhone SE to the $1,000 iPhone X; resulting in continued growth and hitting Samsung and LG hard. While Samsung is well represented at the premium end of the market with its S9 and Note series, and its budget orientated J series helps compete against LG, lack of depth in the mid-high tier is allowing Apple to find a new avenue for growth.”

iPhone X continued to be the top-selling device in China, making up 5.3 percent of all handsets sold during the period and becoming the best-selling smartphone in the country every month since it was released in November 2017. iOS still dropped 2.1 percentage points during this time, however, down to 19.4 percent of the smartphone OS sales share in China, while Android grew 2 percentage points to 80.4 percent.

Elsewhere, iOS sales share grew in Germany (2.8 percentage points), France (4.2), Spain (3.8), Australia (0.5), and Europe (1.3). As iOS grew in these territories, Android (and other operating systems) saw their shares dip. Android’s 4.5 percentage point drop in the U.S. was its greatest loss, which is notable as one of the biggest drops for the Android OS in Kantar’s U.S. tracking over the last year.

Android did manage to gain share against iOS in a few other countries beyond China, including Italy, Japan, and the UK.

For Apple, the company didn’t launch an iPhone in the spring like it has done in previous years such as with the iPhone SE in 2016 and the revamped storage capacities in 2017, so it is interesting that Apple still managed to boost smartphone OS share without a brand-new product.

As we enter the second half of 2018, Apple is expected to debut three new iPhones in September — a second-generation iPhone X, 6.5-inch “iPhone X Plus,” and 6.1-inch low-cost iPhone — which will likely see iOS boosted even more into the holiday season, although the upcoming months typically see iOS’s share dwindle as people await fall updates.

Related Roundups: iPhone 8, iPhone XTag: Kantar WorldpanelBuyer’s Guide: iPhone 8 (Don’t Buy), iPhone X (Caution)
Discuss this article in our forums

Tests Confirm Apple’s Throttling Fix Improves Performance for 2018 MacBook Pro Models

Apple today released an important bug fix for 2018 MacBook Pros, which was designed to address an issue that caused the machines to excessively throttle when doing system intensive tasks.

The bug fix came in the form of a supplemental update to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6, which many new MacBook Pro owners have now installed on their machines. Multiple MacBook Pro owners and media sites have been testing the new patch, and the results appear to be largely positive — the throttling issue has been resolved for the most part and the machines are performing better.

CNET for example, did some before and after testing with a video encoding test. Prior to the patch, the Core i9 machine the site tested saw frequent fluctuations in internal temperature and CPU clock speed, while after updating, the CPU throttling in the Core i9 MacBook Pro ceased, with the clock frequency of the cPU and internal system temperature remaining stable.

Original throttling tests showing frequent fluctuations on left, after patch test on right. Image via CNET
Macworld shared some preliminary test results from its 4K Adobe Premiere test and had similar results, with even clock speed at or above base rather than spiky throttling. Macworld estimates that prior to the patch, the 2018 Core i9 15-inch MacBook Pro was 11 percent faster than the last year’s comparable 2.9GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro. After the patch, “it’s more like 20 percent faster.”

Preliminary results from our 4K Premiere test:
2017 2.9GHz Core i7: 90 min
2018 Core i9 before patch: 80 min
2018 Core i9 after patch: 72 min
Also, very even clocks at or above base instead of spiky throttling. pic.twitter.com/4CtgJ72pRt

— Macworld (@macworld) July 24, 2018

Dave Lee, who highlighted the throttling problem in the first place, tweeted some post-patch test results and said the performance was much better.

sooo much better pic.twitter.com/AKIeXYpKAH

— Dave Lee (@Dave2Dtv) July 24, 2018

Geekbench Labs founder John Poole tested the 2018 Core i9 MacBook Pro after the patch and found that it was faster with a more stable processor frequency. It was slightly slower than the 2018 Core i7 MacBook Pro. Poole says that while long running heavily multi-threaded tasks are going to see similar performance on the Core i9 and Core i7 machines, single and lightly-threaded tasks should be faster on the i9.

After applying the latest update from Apple, I re-ran the Geekbench build test on the i9. It’s slightly faster, but processor frequency stays stable when building (which is comforting).

Still technically slower than the i7, but close enough that, practically, it doesn’t matter. pic.twitter.com/hOogCt6ZB0

— John Poole (@jfpoole) July 24, 2018

MacRumors reader Aea shared pre-patch and post-patch Cinebench benchmarks done with the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Core i9 chip showing the jump in score following the update.

Multiple Reddit users with 2018 MacBook Pro models have been sharing their benchmarking and testing results after installing the supplemental update and have seen significant improvements. This image from Reddit user XNY, for example, depicts a before and after from a 13-inch 2018 MacBook Pro with a Core i5 chip.

Another Reddit user (apple_) confirmed that following the update, his Core i9 machine is performing consistently better.

I did all the original tests and I can confirm, for myself, that I am continuously getting the base clock speed or above in the torture test with Prime 95. Even so much as getting between 2.9 – 3.9 when I was 4 tests in. Also ran cinebench and OpenGL got 106 fps and the cpu test I got above 1000 for every test ran. Thank you Apple for this quick fix and thank you for everyone bringing these issues to light.

The throttling issue was first discovered just a few days after the MacBook Pro models were released, when YouTuber Dave Lee tested the top-of-the-line 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro with 2.9GHz Core i9 chip using Adobe Premiere Pro and found that it was underperforming compared to a 2017 MacBook Pro due to what Lee said was an “unacceptable” level of throttling.

Apple reached out to Lee to and worked with him to replicate his workflow, getting to the source of the bug. Apple discovered that there was a missing digital key in the MacBook Pro firmware that impacted the thermal management system, driving down clock speeds under heavy thermal loads. This was a problem that appears to have affected all 2018 MacBook Pro models.

The problem appears to have been successfully addressed in today’s macOS High Sierra supplemental update, and Apple has issued an apology to customers who experienced less than optimal performance on their new 2018 machines.

Customers who have a 2018 MacBook Pro and have not installed the update should do so immediately to see the performance improvements for themselves.

Related Roundup: MacBook ProBuyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums

Honor 7S review: good looking, but so very slow

We’ve noticed an interesting trend in smartphones over the last few years. The gap between the best and the worst has gotten increasingly smaller. So in today’s market, the advantages of a more expensive phone are less distinct than ever.

So even if you appreciate high-end builds and having the latest features, you’d be advised to think twice before spending an arm and a leg on the latest and greatest.

Should you mind the new wave of budget handsets?

Unlike premium phones, budget-oriented devices have relied on a different yet effective strategy. Instead of trying to produce new and exciting features to fuel headlines, affordable smartphones have instead focused on doing the essentials and doing them well.

It’s for this reason that budget devices are becoming more interesting, and are improving at a faster rate. While their premium counterparts have a tendency to stagnate.

One device in this category is the recently launched Honor 7S. At least at first glance. Huawei’s sub-brand, Honor is aimed at people who don’t want to drop a huge amount on a phone. The company does offer more advanced phones like the Honor 10 View which is available for $499. Yet this price places it in direct competition with the OnePlus 6, so it’s not exactly a low-cost affair.

But the latest Honor 7S however, is truly a phone for those on a tight budget. It’s available for roughly $129 and for this modest price it brings some interesting features (and some potentially deal-breaking flaws) to the table, which we are going to talk about in a few.

Design & Build

The design of the Honor 7S isn’t striking. You won’t go “wow” as you extract it out of the box, but the phone does look pretty good. For a budget device.

It has a metal frame and a black plastic panel with a matte finish. So unlike the super trendy all-glass phones everyone is drooling over these days, the Honor 7S is not a magnet for fingerprints. Which is nice to have.

The Honor 7S is quite compact too. It weighs only 142g and has 8.3mm frame, so it feels pretty great in hand.

Display

The Honor 7S is among the cheapest offerings on the market to offer 18:9 aspect ratio, which follows a major trend throughout the phone industry. But more often it’s been seen on devices that cost a lot more. Although more affordable options are starting to emerge.

The display is a sensible 5.45-inch in size and the resolution is 1440 x 720 pixel, which is what you’d normally expect from budget devices such as this one. So while it’s not full HD, it’s still acceptable.

The color reproduction is quite decent overall. The screen is also particularly bright and vibrant compared to other devices in this price category.

You also have some additional display features to tap into from Settings. There’s Eye Comfort mode, which filters out blue light to relieve visual fatigue. Once you enable this mode, the screen will have a yellowish tint, automatically adjusting the color temperature to lessen the strain on your eyes.

Or you can manually fiddle with color temperature and opt for warmer or colder tones. Depending on what you prefer.

Apart from the display, the front of the phone also houses a loudspeaker. A 5-megapixel selfie shooter, LED notification light and LED flash for night selfies (if you’re into that) are also included. The speaker sounds quite decent for a budget phone, but offers nothing out of the ordinary.

The power button and the volume rocker are both located on the right side, while the left side is home to the dual-SIM card slot and a slot for storage expansion. The device uses a micro USB port for charging which is located at the bottom.

Like it’s still the case with the majority of budget phones today, the phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack which is located on the top.

On the back, there is a single camera system. The notable absentee here is the fingerprint scanner. Also, the phone lacks a face ID feature.

Huawei is pushing two special features with the Honor 7S, and one has to do with making phone calls. It’s called Loud Voice Call, and it’s supposed to help the other person’s voice cut through ambient noise during a call.

Yet in our experience we can’t say we’ve noticed anything out of the ordinary. Yeah, we could hear the voice of the other person loud and clear enough, but honestly, the quality didn’t stand out to us or anything.

Performance

While things seemed to be moderately promising on the outside, things aren’t that great when it comes to performance. It’s not usually a strong point of budget smartphones and the Honor 7S isn’t much different in this area. The phone is powered by MediaTek MT6739 processor which a quad-core affair clocked at 1.5GHz. It’s backed up by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable storage (up to 256GB).

Unfortunately, the processor used is old and pretty lack-lustre. As a result, the phone is often laggy and takes a few seconds to “think through” even the most basic of commands.

Gaming performance is quite average at best, with more demanding games suffering the most. We’ve also noticed a weird bug. While playing (certain) games, the screen randomly dims itself and then brightens up again. It’s quite frustrating when you’re trying to see what you’re doing in the game.

If you’re coming to the Honor 7S from a Galaxy S9 or even from an Honor 10 View, the overall experience will probably feel quite exasperating. But if you give it a few seconds to breathe, the Honor 7S manages to do its job. It can handle most basic tasks, but it will do so at its own sluggish pace. Fortunately, webpages tend to load pretty fast. No major headaches here.

The Honor 7S relies on a 3,020 mAh battery which offers surprisingly good battery life. We could easily get through the day on a single charge and still have some juice left before bedtime. Our daily routine when using the phone included using social media, talking on the phone, a bit of gaming and reading a few articles.

That’s not too surprising, when you don’t have a super high-resolution display like flagships often do, your battery is simply going to last longer because there are fewer pixels to push.

A one-time session of continuous gaming  (with sound off and screen brightness set to medium) that lasted around 5.5 hours drained battery levels down to 15%. However, be warned that in such an intense scenario, the phone has a tendency to overheat.

The Honor 7S apparently has fast-charging. It takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes to fully juice it up again. But that’s with the charging cable Honor provides in the box. If you use a third party charger it takes a lot longer.

The second special feature Huawei is pushing here is a smart battery management function meant to extend battery life. You can turn it on from Settings. The mode enables a very pristine interface with only a few apps are available. Which you get to pick. With 59% battery life and the Ultra power saving mode on, you should be good for another 2 days and 4 hours!

Cameras

Dual cameras are among the most popular trends in phones over the last few years . The Honor 7S bucks this one, however, and settles for a singular 13-megapixel rear-facing camera that features PDAF for focused pictures.

For a smartphone that costs less than $150, the Honor 7S can take pretty decent pics with a moderate amount of details and nice colors. Provided you have optimal lighting conditions. Even so, in bright sunlight some results look a bit burned (see tree picture).

But don’t expect the same outcome in low-light scenarios. The pictures we’ve taken with the phone look very grainy and the colors extremely washed out.

The camera app brings nothing out of the ordinary. Swipe right and you’ll open up the Settings panel. From here you get access to more advanced options like tweaking ISO and White Balance.

The main camera also lets you shoot 1080p video at 30fps. Due to the lack of optical image stabilization, the results are pretty rudimentary.

The selfie camera is pretty mediocre in quality too. Most self-portraits we snapped turned out too soft. There’s also a beauty mode enabled that will smooth your imperfection. It’s a bit over the top, making you look overly pale, but some people might be into that kind of thing.

Software

Android 8.1 Oreo is a welcome sight on low-cost phones. It used to be the case that many devices in this category shipped with outed versions of Android. Fortunately, the Honor 7S is as up to date as it can be in this department. Although, our review unit has the March Android security patch installed, which is quite outdated.

But while it’s laudable that the Honor 7S ships with the latest in terms of Android, we’re pretty doubtful that the phone will get the Android P update.

Obviously, the phone ships with Huawei’s proprietary EMUI 8.0 laid on top of Android. So those who used a Huawei phone before will know what to expect.

The heavily-skinned interface might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it does offer sufficient functionality for users. The phone packs some customization options. For example, there’s no app drawer by default, but if you’re a fan, you can enable the option from Settings.

Another cool trick you might be familiar with if you’ve used a OnePlus is the ability to slide down three fingers to take a screenshot. You can find the option under Motion control in System.

What’s not so great is that the Honor 7S comes pre-installed with a series of apps including Tips, Phone Manager or Themes, which you may or may not need. During our time with the phone we didn’t use them much for the simple fact that we didn’t find them helpful at all.

Themes, for example, is very basic offering only a few options to choose from. Although you can add more wallpapers by tapping into your own private gallery.

Conclusion

Smartphones these days tend to have a fairly short lifespan. In most circumstances, they don’t last more than two years. So if feel it’s unnecessary to make an $800+ investment into a device you will want to replace in a couple of years, buying a budget phone makes perfect sense.

So should you consider getting the Honor 7S? It depends.

It’s hard not to notice the super convenient price tag. For under $150 you can get a phone boasting a modern 18:9 aspect ratio, a great battery life and the latest version of Android on board.

However, you might want to think twice if, for example, you want to use the phone mostly for gaming. Yeah, the large battery will enable you to embark on long gaming sessions. But at what cost?

You’ll surely become annoyed with the phone’s flat performance which is exacerbated when running games. Yes, the Honor 7S can handle a simple game like Cafeland without much lag, but try to play anything slightly more demanding and you’ll start feeling disheartened pretty fast.

But if you want a phone to assist you with basic tasks such as browsing the web, checking email, social media and texting, the Honor 7S might be what you’re looking for.

Although there might be better options out there to consider. For example, the Moto E5 Play costs only $79.99 and ships with a better Snapdragon 427 processor under the hood. However, it features a smaller battery and a less impressive 8-megapixel main camera.

We should note that the phone is not currently available in the US. However, if you are in Europe you can grab it for €119 in select countries. At this point, we don’t know whether Honor has any plans of launching the handset in the States. So for the time being, customers in the country who are looking for a budget phone can opt for the Honor 7X, which offers improved specs at a slightly higher price point.

How to buy speakers: A beginner’s guide to home audio

“My speakers cost more than my car.” We actually heard someone say that recently at an audio convention, and we’re inclined to believe him, too, because speakers can get outrageously expensive. After we got done stifling our chuckles, though, the statement got us thinking about how speakers really are an important investment, and why it is that more people don’t treat their speaker purchases more like their car purchases.

Both are important investments, both serve practical and frivolous needs, and both vary greatly in terms of size, aesthetics, quality, performance, and price. Yet, most people we know will spend weeks, if not months, researching, test-driving, haggling and, ultimately, purchasing a car, whereas those same shoppers are known to simply walk into a big-box electronics store, hear a demonstration and walk out with a set of speakers.

The truth is, the right set of speakers, if properly taken care of, will last significantly longer than your car, and will serve up decades of enjoyment with basic maintenance. The key to sonic bliss is to empower yourself with knowledge, do a little research, and spend some time test driving before pulling the trigger.

We’re here to help. Below is our guide to the ultimate speaker buying process from beginning to end. Armed with the knowledge contained within, your next speaker purchase can be easy, fun and downright gratifying.

Speakers 101: A primer

If you’ve already started reading audio or home theater magazines, then you may have run into some terminology that you aren’t familiar with. If you already know the difference between a satellite and a monitor or a surround and a rear surround, then please feel free to skip ahead. For those who need to do a little catching up, make sure to check out our home audio glossary for a brief overview of what is happening in speaker-land these days.

Click on a section or go to the next page:

• What will you use them for?
• The specs that matter
• Online vs. brick & mortar shopping
• In-home testing
• Frequently asked questions

How to take pictures of a solar eclipse without damaging your eyes or camera

123RF/IgorZhuravlov

Solar eclipses, particularly total solar eclipses, are spectacular occasions. Although they aren’t actually rare, visibility depends on where you are at the time of the eclipse, which makes them feel very rare. Case in point: The next total eclipse will occur on July 2, 2019, but over the South Pacific and South America, and not visible at all within the U.S. (In case you were wondering, the next total eclipse to cross the U.S. won’t take place until April 8th, 2024.)

If you’re lucky enough to catch one, odds are you’re going to want to snap a few photos of the rare astronomical phenomenon — but this can be easier said than done. Here’s how to photograph a solar eclipse, from gear choice to safety — for you and your camera.

Extra protection

Unlike almost anything else you photograph, shooting a solar eclipse will require a bit more equipment than only a camera and a lens. To protect your camera’s delicate sensor and lens — not to mention your eyes when staring through the viewfinder — you’re going to need a solar photo filter. This is essentially a very dark piece of glass that fits over the front of your lens and is specifically designed to limit the amount of light without adding a color cast to the image.

Solar photo filters range from $20 all the way up to $250. As with most things in the photography world, you get what you pay for. High-end filters will likely be made of a more optically pure glass and therefore have less effect on the final images, while the lower-end filters will likely have some impact on the final image. That said, many of the negative qualities of a lower-quality filter can be touched up in post-production without much fuss.

If you’re wondering: Yes, it is technically possible to photograph the eclipse using standard neutral density (ND) filters. However, most solar filters reduce light by 16 to 18 stops — well above the average ND filter. This means you’ll need to stack multiple ND filters to achieve the same strength, which may reduce image quality or increase cost if you don’t already own them.

Likewise, you will also need a pair of sunglasses specifically designed for solar eclipses. Unlike your average sunglasses, they’re far stronger to ensure your eyes stay protected when looking directly at the sun. Note that eclipse glasses degrade over time, so if you have an old pair from your childhood, don’t trust them; get a new pair.

We can’t stress this enough: Do not look through an optical viewfinder or directly at the sun without proper protection. Additionally, do not keep your camera pointed toward the sun without the proper filter over the lens — even if the camera is turned off.

What to bring

On the topic of lenses, it’s ultimately up to you on what lens you decide to put on your camera. If you want a really-close-up shot of the eclipse as it happens, you’ll want a 500mm or longer lens. If you want to include a bit of foreground in the image to give context, something along the lines of a 70-200mm lens might better suit your needs. If you’re hoping to catch the entire sequence of events, a wide-angle lens might be your best option — something between 15-25mm, for example.

You’ll probably shooting with an aperture setting in the range of f/5.6, so a fast lens won’t be a necessity. Use what you have and make the most of it. Just remember to not photograph a solar eclipse without your solar filter attached to the front of your lens.

Other accessories you’ll need include a sturdy tripod and a cable or remote shutter release (not mandatory, but this will allow you to control the shutter without touching the camera — many modern cameras can be controlled via smartphone app, too). You won’t want to miss the shot because you forgot to charge a battery or format a memory card, so we also recommend having extras of those on hand.

The following video, created by Nikon for the solar eclipse in August 2017, does a great job explaining what you’ll need to capture the eclipse and what lenses might best fit your desired composition. Canon also has a website dedicated to shooting an eclipse.

Find your location

Once you have all of your equipment, next up is to figure out where exactly the solar eclipse will be visible and where you want to be in order to best compose the shot. Don’t worry, you don’t need a degree in astrophysics to determine the path of the eclipse — the good people at NASA have already done that for you. NASA’s eclipse website has everything you need, including a map detailing the paths of upcoming eclipses. You can also download the Smithsonian’s app for the August 21, 2024 solar eclipse.

Even if you aren’t in the direct path of the eclipse, known as the path of totality, you will still be afforded an impressive view within the much larger partial eclipse area. So, figure out how far you’re willing to travel to capture the eclipse, and get comfortable with the surrounding area so you’re better prepared when the event happens.

Plan on being at your desired location in advance to not only secure your spot, but also set up your equipment and play around with your settings to ensure your photos will turn out exactly as you’d like. Besides crowds, the only other obstacle you should face is weather. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can control in that regard, so it might be a good idea to have a secondary, backup location in mind that might have a better view.

When planning the composition of your photograph, don’t be afraid to get creative. We won’t all create the stunning, viral image that Ted Hesser made of the 2017 eclipse, but his story is a good example of why you should plan ahead. Rather than shooting only the sun, consider framing it within your environment. Shoot through a building or bridge, capture the silhouette of fellow star-gazers, and don’t be afraid to shoot from a lower or higher angle than everyone else. If you can, go out a day or two before and make note of exactly where the sun is at the time of the eclipse so you can plan your framing.

Sometimes, pointing your camera away from the sky can yield equally impressive results. Take advantage of the eerie light and unique shadows the solar eclipse will cast on objects. The leaves of trees will focus sunlight into crescent-shape shadows as the eclipse begins, and during totality, the entire area will look like sunset — but in all directions.

Camera settings

One of the most important things you can do is to understand what kind of settings you’ll be using when the time comes. As pointed out in the second part of Nikon’s solar eclipse video series, seen below, knowing exactly what settings you’ll need before the event will help ensure you’re not fumbling around with ISO and aperture when you’re trying to capture what is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime event.

The exact settings you use will vary depending on your location, when during the event you’re shooting, and the overall exposure you’re looking to achieve. That said, there are a few general settings you can keep in mind. The first step is to take your camera out of any automatic shooting modes, including but not limited to Program, Shutter Priority, and Aperture Priority. These work for a lot of situations, but with the quickly-changing scene of a solar eclipse, your camera will likely struggle to take into account the extreme brightness of the sun and the moments of complete darkness throughout the entirety of the eclipse. Your best bet is to shoot in the manual mode.

For the sake of simplicity, keep the white balance in the “Auto” mode but shoot in RAW. This will let you dial in the proper white balance later during post-production. As for the rest of the settings, odds are you’re going to want to shoot with a fairly small aperture — somewhere around f/8 through f/22. This will ensure everything in the scene is in focus. Shutter speed shouldn’t matter much, since your subject isn’t a fast-moving one and your camera is on a tripod, but unless you’re planning on capturing a long exposure shot, odds are you won’t want to go below 1/3oth of a second or so. This should ensure your shot is tack sharp and doesn’t have any blur.

If you are in the path of totality, it is safe to remove the solar filter only during totality. (If you are not in the path of totality, it is never safe to do so — even if 99-percent of the sun is blacked out, the remaining 1-percent can cause permanent damage to your equipment and eyes.) During totality, you will have at most a few minutes to capture the sun’s corona, which is too faint to be seen through a solar filter. The length of totality varies from eclipse to eclipse, so it’s a good idea to know exactly how long totality will last for the eclipse you’re shooting, so you know when to pop that solar filter back on your lens. The August 21, 2017 total eclipse lasted just 2 minutes and 43 seconds.

If video is more your cup of tea, the same settings and rules apply. Just flip your DSLR into its video mode and expose for the sun — again, with the appropriate solar filter in front of the lens. The video should come together as the solar eclipse takes place. Keep in mind many DSLRs have 30-minute capture limits, due to unusual regulations, so be ready to stop and restart your video if you’re planning on capturing the entire event. Extra batteries and memory cards will likely prove beneficial as well, since video capture burns through both fast.

Photographing the eclipse with your phone

If you don’t have a DSLR, mirrorless, or point-and-shoot on hand, don’t worry. Even though it’s limited, the camera inside your smartphone is more than good enough. Using any number of adapters, such as this universal Gosky mount, you can connect your phone to a standard telescope and capture the action from up-close. Remember though, always have a solar filter on your telescope when viewing the sun, be it with your phone or your own eyes. (Again, it is safe to remove the filter only during totality.)

You may also want to use an app that lets you control more of the camera settings on your phone. There are even apps that let you shoot in RAW, preserving more information so you can make adjustments later and get even better results. Apps that let you manually focus might also save you some time; simply focus to infinity and wait for the eclipse. When you tap the shutter button, there will now be no delay as the camera tries to hunt for focus.

Finally, as important as the photograph is, be sure to take in the eclipse with your own (protected) eyes. It’s not every day you get to see an eclipse, so live the moment through your own lenses, not just the one attached to your camera.

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That bleeding vegetarian burger from Impossible Foods is now FDA-approved

There are two distinct roads to go down when creating a veggie burger. Option one: Create a burger that no one would ever mistake for meat, with hopes of helping vegetarians feel included during cookouts and barbecues without offending their sensibilities. Option two: Create a burger that is so realistic that it’s probably better suited for carnivores, or for vegetarians who really, really wish they still ate meat. Option two was once the road less traveled, but when the Impossible Burger came along, everything changed. The company created a vegetarian burger that “bleeds” just like a real, juicy, half-pounder does, and now, the Food and Drug Administration has decided that it’s totally, 100 percent safe.

This week, the FDA determined that the key ingredient in Impossible Foods’ “bleeding” veggie burger poses no risk to human health, and is “generally recognized as safe.” The nutrient that causes the bleeding effect is heme — it’s an iron-rich compound that occurs naturally in all living things. And as it turns out, it’s the reason that the Impossible Burger turns impossibly blood-red when it’s cooked.

The stamp of approval comes as a relief for Impossible Foods, but by no means a surprise. After all, the folks at the Bill Gates-funded startup have done plenty of in-house research to guarantee the safety of their product, and the burger’s widespread popularity at fast-food chains like White Castle and airlines like Air New Zealand made it seem quite clear that its veggie-meat was safe for consumption. But last year, when Impossible Foods volunteered information about its burger to the FDA, the agency said that the data they received was not enough to “establish the safety” of heme.

Of course, this was enough to send the internet into a tizzy, prompting concerns that bleeding vegetarian burgers were simply too unnatural, and therefore, unsafe to eat.

But now that the FDA has reversed its position, it seems that the coast is clear for Impossible Foods and its next mission.

“We would have been kicking ourself in the foot if we hadn’t already done the research and proven that this was safe,” company CEO Pat Brown told Business Insider. “But it’s great news.”

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Feast your eyes on the world’s most detailed image of a fruit fly brain

The common fruit flies has never been as interesting as it is now, thanks to work coming out of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland. Using a technique known as high-speed electron microscopy, scientists there have carried out the most detailed fruit fly brain imaging in history — and the results are both impressive and pretty darn fascinating.

The experimental neurobiologists’ work involved taking 21 million nanoscale-resolution images of the brain of a fruit fly in order to record all 100,000 nerve cells that it contains. The rainbow-colored images produced don’t just look pretty, but also lay the groundwork for future research that will establish exactly which neurons talk to one another in the fly’s brain. With plenty left to discover about how brains work, this could turn out to be revolutionary.

“At 100,000 neurons, the fruit fly’s brain is the biggest that has been imaged at this resolution to date,” Davi Bock, a neurobiologist at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus, told Digital Trends. “We can now trace the neuronal connections making up any circuit of interest in the fly’s brain. These ‘wiring diagrams’ can then be complemented by very powerful genetic tools providing molecular, physiological, and functional data about the neurons in the circuit.”

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

As Bock notes, being able to analyze a brain with this level of completeness and high resolution can reveal new insights. For example, the team is particularly interested in the neurons which help create memories. By looking at the neurons which send messages to a part of the brain called the mushroom body, which aids with learning and memory, the researchers discovered a whole new type of neuron that plays a role in this area. They theorize that these cells could help to integrate various types of sensory information.

Such discoveries may ultimately teach us more about human brains, too. “Over and over again, principles discovered in the fruit fly have been found to hold true in a wide range of organisms, including humans,” Bock continued. “This is likely to be true of brain circuits as well.”

Next up, Bock said that the team hopes to apply “emerging automated segmentation algorithms” which can help accelerate tracing these brain circuits. They will also continue to explore the functions associated with the mushroom body.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Cell.

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PayPal no longer the only payment system for eBay – Apple Pay is coming soon

PayPal no longer has a monopoly on eBay payment systems. The online retailer is officially exploring other options, and soon, you’ll be able to buy home appliances, clothes, or even cars on eBay using Apple Pay. The announcement comes a few months after eBay revealed that it would be managing the end-to-end payments flow on its own platform in an effort to improve the buying and selling process on the site, and come early fall, buyers should be able to use Apple Pay to purchase items from participating sellers. Apple Pay will be an option on both Apple iOS and Safari, and both the eBay mobile app and mobile web.

“Apple Pay is one of the most ubiquitous forms of payments and provides users with an easy, fast and secure way to pay,” said Steve Fisher, senior vice president of payments at eBay. “Offering Apple Pay as a form of payment on eBay is the first step in providing more choice and flexibility in payment options to our tens of millions of buyers.”

Throughout 2019, eBay will continue to offer additional payment options, and by 2021, the retail behemoth expects to have transitioned most of its Marketplace customers to a new and (hopefully) improved payments experience.

“Managing the end-to-end payments experience on eBay’s Marketplace is a key initiative for the company. As we expand our new payments experience over the coming months, we look forward to offering our global customers many other forms of payments on our platform,” Fisher continued.

Initially, a small group of Marketplace customers will be privy to the first part of Apple Pay’s rollout, so don’t expect Apple Pay to be ubiquitous across eBay quite yet. That said, the company is certainly hoping to onboard a growing number of customers in the near future, and Apple Pay is likely just the first of many payment options. The benefit of an integrated platform are numerous — for one thing, eBay customers won’t have to sign into another service just to check out, and the availability of numerous payment processors will likely mean lower processing charges.

Additionally, eBay will be working alongside Square’s financing service thanks to a partnership with Square Capital. Under the new agreement, eBay sellers can apply for loans of between $500 and $100,000 in order to help their business. This option, for now, will only be available to select U.S. customers.

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