Canada Deal: Rock out with 30% off B&O Play Bluetooth headphones and speakers

Limited time discounts!

Today only, you can take 30% off selected B&O Play by Bang & Olufsen Bluetooth headphones and speakers at Amazon Canada.

The promotion includes the Beoplay H5 Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds in Black, Dusty Rose, Moss Green, and Vapour (that’s grey, to me and you). Normally costing $299.99, we’ve never seen these wireless buds drop below $200 so today’s offer represents an all time low price. The headphones are splash and dust resistant, feature 5 hours of battery life and when not in use can magnetically click together around your neck to power down and conserve energy.

You can also grab Beoplay P2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker in Black, Royal Blue, Sand Stone, Umber and Natural colours. It’s also splash and dust resistant and offers 10 hours of play time. Now down to $159, it usually averages around $215!

These deals are available today only, so act fast if you want to make the most of these limited time offers.

See at Amazon Canada

Best Surge Protectors in 2018

You pay a lot for your electronics, so shield them from electrical damage with the best surge protection.

A surge protector, in a nutshell, is a special component installed inside a power extension hub or outlet that soaks up any excess charge passing through the circuit. This aids in preventing your PC, TV or other electronic devices being dealt a blow. Think of it as a shield of sorts in combat. You’d rather that shield takes the hit over part of your body, right?

But there’s actually more to a surge protector than you might think, especially when it comes to picking up new extension leads. Here’s what you need to know, as well as a few recommendations to get you started.

• Why do I need a surge protector?
• Advanced protection
• Backup power
• Basic protection

Why do I need a surge protector?

As well as making sure you have adequate protection at the point of entry in the home (or office) with a fuse box, there’s also the requirement of adding in the middleman in case that fails, which is where the trusty surge protector comes into play. A fuse can be reset or replaced, so can a surge protector, but your device getting fried and data being lost is something you really need to avoid.

These surge protector can also be accompanied by some additional handy features, such as indicators as to when surge protection is no longer active (usually dictated by an LED light) and halting power flow altogether if a fault is detected or the protector is burnt out. Not all extension leads and hubs include additional protection. On more affordable options, it’s down to you to keep checking to see if the protection is still active.

Advanced protection

This P11VT3 model from reputable brand APC (who also do some killer uninterruptible power supply units) has everything you need and more. It’s a big unit that has 11 well-spaced outlets for hooking up all your electronics, and boy can you connect a bunch thanks to the massive 3020 Joule support. Numerous monitors can be wired up, alongside a computer, as well as countless phones and tablets — perfect for the busy household and small office.

Priced at around $25 it’s not cheap by any means, especially if you need a few of them, but it’s well worth the price. Power won’t be halted unless the main line-neutral protection fails, and when things go south after a lightning strike or other phenomenon, your equipment will not be supplied power.

See at Amazon

Backup power

APC also does UPS units, as mentioned above and the BR1500MS is one such offering. Sporting a 1,500VA (900W) built-in battery pack and surge protection, it’s got everything you need to keep your electronics safe and online even during power outage. The automatic voltage regulation instantly corrects fluctuations in power supply, and the LCD panel allows you to quickly check the status of the unit.

Priced at around $193, it’s really not cheap but if you have valuable equipment hooked up to the mains, you need to consider just how much it’s worth. It’s backed by APC’s three-year warranty.

See at Amazon

Basic protection

Amazon has its own line of extension cords and this option isn’t actually that bad. This 790 Joule surge protected extension has a total of six power outlets, an LED light to show if the surge protection is active, and comes rocking a six ft long cable — longer cables are recommended, especially when hooking up larger appliances like computers and TVs (not everyone is lucky with wall outlet positioning).

This really is the no-thrills solution but it gets the job done without frying your equipment. It’s only around $9 and you’ll only get basic functionality. It will continue supplying power even after the protection has worn out. So keep your wits about you.

See at Amazon

Stay protected

Regardless of what surge protection you choose to go with, be sure to keep everything guarded against surges. Even the most basic protection is better than nothing.

Apple Plans Revamped India Strategy With Official Stores, Year-Long iPhone Deals, and Improved Apps

Apple’s ongoing struggles in India have been scrutinized repeatedly over the past few years, and today a new report by Bloomberg has looked into Apple’s plan to stay afloat in what’s considered the world’s “fastest-growing smartphone market.”

In an effort to revamp the company’s presence in India, Apple CEO Tim Cook is believed to be working behind-the-scenes to “remold Apple’s failing India strategy,” according to both current and former Apple employees. This plan was kicked off when Apple executive Michel Coulomb began overseeing the company’s India strategy at the end of 2017.

According to the new report, this strategy includes better and longer-lasting retail deals with higher sales targets, the opening of official Apple retail stores in India, “overhauling” the company’s relationship with independent retailers, and improving apps and services “aimed more closely at Indians.” This last point particularly includes a “revamped” version of Apple Maps that is aimed to launch by 2020.

On the point of services, earlier this year Indian iPhone users discussed Apple’s poor performance in this area and one user specifically called Apple Maps “a joke” in the country. While some services like Apple Music were favorably received, others like Siri were identified as low points for Indian customers, as the assistant “often struggles” with local accents and does not understand “many words of Indian origination.”

For retail, the official Apple stores are said to open in 2019 and eventually include locations in New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. While the Indian government’s rules for foreign companies opening shops have previously prevented Apple from launching local stores, the company now builds some of its iPhone SE and iPhone 6s models in India, which is believed to help it meet India’s rule requiring these companies to manufacture 30 percent of their products locally.

Because the government has made it tough for Apple to open its own retail stores in India, iPhone prices are less reliable than the company’s reputation for strict price controls would suggest. Indian wholesalers and online retailers often raise or lower their prices daily without giving a reason, leading shoppers to haggle or wait in hopes of a better deal, says Subhash Chandra, who runs a 510-store chain of gadget shops called Sangeetha Mobiles. Two leading retail chains say iPhone sales have fallen to one-third of their January level.

In the Indian market, Apple ranks 11th and accounts for just one percent of India’s phone sales, selling fewer than one million iPhones during the first half of 2018. Comparatively, rival smartphone maker Xiaomi sold “more than 19 million” during that period, according to data gathered by Counterpoint Research.

As usual, much of the conversation surrounding Apple’s disappointing performance in the country is due to its higher smartphone prices in comparison to the company’s peers in India. Nagaraja B.C., the manager of a local smartphone store named Poorvika Mobile World, said that his average shopper’s budget is “about 10,000 rupees,” or $150.

Apple’s cheapest model in the market, the locally-made iPhone SE, is nearly twice that price, leading many customers to opt for smartphones like the Xiaomi Redmi 5A at $100. As part of the new strategy, Apple is said to be in talks with retailers and banks to “offer holiday deals year round” to convince customers to purchase its smartphones.

Tag: India
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Apple Supplier TSMC Recovering From ‘Debilitating’ Computer Virus [Updated]

Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is in recovery from a “debilitating” computer virus that hit many of its fabrication tools this past Friday evening. The company says that 80 percent of the affected tools have been restored, but it’s now on a path to warn its customers — potentially including Apple — of delayed shipments and reduced revenue due to the virus (via Bloomberg).

TSMC builds chips for Apple’s iPhone, and in late July a report from DigiTimes stated that the supplier had begun commercial production of chips manufactured using its advanced 7-nanometer process, including Apple’s A12 processor for the 2018 iPhones. Now TSMC says many of its customers can expect shipment delays, although it didn’t specify which customers would be affected.

The supplier says that “no confidential information” was compromised during the virus attack and as of Sunday most of its customers had been notified. TSMC believes the virus came from a “misoperation” during the software installation process for a new tool that then spread through its computer network, and one analyst thinks “all of TSMC’s 12-inch wafer fabrication plants” were infected.

Mark Li, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said he thinks all of TSMC’s 12-inch wafer fabrication plants had been infected and that many customers had been affected, though the impact will be “very limited” because the company can make up for the losses during the busiest holiday quarter. TSMC makes Apple chips in its 12-inch fabrication plants.

“Long-term, TSMC’s trustworthy image is somewhat tainted but it is hard to quantify the effect now,” Li wrote in a research note Monday.

Although it’s unclear how the virus will end up affecting Apple and the trio of iPhones expected to be revealed next month, Apple is TSMC’s largest customer and is said to account for more than 21 percent of TSMC’s revenue. Apple chose TSMC to remain the exclusive supplier of the upcoming A12 processor for the new iPhones, following rumors from last year that suggested Samsung could be returning to iPhone chip production in 2018.

Despite the fear over chip shipment delays, Apple is likely to have plans in place for any potential supply chain delays, as Bloomberg points out:

While TSMC has not indicated which customers could be affected, such a virus could potentially slow Apple’s output of new devices, cutting into the number of units sold.

Apple does prepare for last minute supply-chain hiccups like the one facing TSMC and could work through any potential problems. An Apple spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

“If the most advanced 7nm process products suffer a major impact, then concern could arise over a potential launch delay for next-gen iPhones,” SMBC Nikko analysts wrote on Monday.

Apple is expected to announce three iPhone models at an event in September: two OLED models measuring in at 5.8 and 6.5 inches and a 6.1-inch lower-cost LCD model. All three iPhones released in 2018 will support Face ID and edge-to-edge displays, with designs similar to last year’s tenth-anniversary iPhone X. According to the latest supply chain analysis (which came prior to TSMC’s virus attack), the OLED iPhones were predicted to have a typical September launch window while the LCD model could “possibly” be delayed to October.

Update: TSMC provided more information in a statement Monday morning, placing blame for the virus attack on a variant of the 2017 WannaCry ransomware. The virus hit facilities in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taichung, including locations that produce Apple chips. According to TSMC CEO C.C. Wei, an “unidentified vendor” provided the company with the infected tool, ruling out the possibility of a hacker targeting TSMC.

“We are surprised and shocked,” Wei told reporters. “We have installed tens of thousands of tools before, and this is the first time this happened.”

Related Roundup: 2018 iPhonesTag: TSMC
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Microsoft Joins Movies Anywhere, Syncing Movies Purchased on Xbox/Windows With iTunes

Microsoft today announced that it is joining Disney’s expanded Movies Anywhere service, allowing customers who purchase films on Xbox and Windows 10 to link their content to Movies Anywhere (via The Verge). Thanks to the new addition, this means that any supported movie you purchase through Microsoft Movies & TV will now also be available on other linked Movies Anywhere accounts, including iTunes.

Digital retailers supporting the service now include iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, VUDU, Google Play, FandangoNOW, and Microsoft Movies & TV. Movies Anywhere supports films from Disney, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros., meaning that most of the latest releases can be found on the service.

If the films you purchase come from these studios, and you have your Microsoft and iTunes accounts connected to Movies Anywhere, you’ll be able to sync purchases between the two platforms.

Microsoft Movies & TV now supports Movies Anywhere! Purchase Movies Anywhere eligible films from Microsoft Movies & TV and watch on supported platforms: Xbox, Windows, iOS, Android, and streaming devices. Sync your accounts to access your entire Movies Anywhere library on Microsoft Movies & TV, no matter where you purchased.

As a bonus for syncing your Microsoft Movies and TV account with Movies Anywhere, the companies are gifting X-Men: Days of Future Past to its customers for a limited time. Head to Microsoft’s FAQ page for more information on how to link the two accounts.

Disney originally expanded Movies Anywhere from “Disney Movies Anywhere” last October, growing the service into an app that accumulates the user’s entire library of films, not just those from Disney, Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm. Movies Anywhere launched only in the United States, and as of Microsoft’s partnership with the platform it is still limited only to U.S. customers.

Tags: Microsoft, Movies Anywhere
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LG wants to make sure you know it has a phone with a stylus too

It’s stylus week in smartphone world, and although the Galaxy Note 9 is still to come, LG has started us off by announcing the LG Q8, a 2018 refresh of the entirely different Q8 from last year. It’s not a Note 9 challenger, and has a midrange specification sheet — but it may serve those who want a pen to scribble with but cannot justify the massive prices a Samsung Note phone usually commands.

What makes it most notable (sorry) is it provides some more feature and specification information into the recently announced LG Q Stylus range, which will be sold in the U.S. soon. LG wasn’t very forthcoming with the specs or price for the Q Stylus at the time, and the Q8 appears to resemble the Q Stylus Plus. Why has LG announced the phone under a different name? The Q8 is destined for South Korea at the moment.

The stylus hides inside the Q8’s body until its needed, at which time it can be used with the memo feature, for drawing, and to create your own emoji. The memo feature works even when the screen is switched off, making it easy to quickly take notes, and LG has built little sound effects into the pen so it sounds like your writing instrument of choice when it touches the screen.

Specification

This isn’t a small phone. The screen measures 6.2 inches with an 18:9 aspect ratio, and a 2160 x 1080 pixel resolution. There is no notch along the top of the display, and screen bezels similar to the old LG G6. On the back of the phone is a single-lens 16-megapixel camera above a flash unit and a fingerprint sensor. A wide-angle selfie camera is on the front. Despite the sleek appearance, the LG Q8 reaches the MIL-STD 810G standard for toughness, including an IP68 level of water resistance. It weighs 172 grams and is 8.4mm thick, with a 3,300mAh battery inside.

A Snapdragon 450 processor and 4GB of RAM power the phone, and there is both 64GB of internal storage space, and a MicroSD card slot too. The 2017 Q8 resembled the LG V20 and had a far higher specification, but the new version has taken on a style of its own, and become a very different device despite using the same name. The Q8 didn’t have a stylus either.

LG has not given the Q8 a release date yet, but the price converts over to around $480. It will be sold in both Moroccan blue and aurora black color schemes. While the Q Stylus range is the model for buyers in the U.S., the Q8 may also be adapted for use elsewhere in the world. Just don’t get confused over the names for what is essentially the same phone it has announced once this year.

Editors’ Recommendations

• The LG Q Stylus provides a cheaper way to be ultra-productive
• LG V35 ThinQ vs. LG G7 ThinQ: Which phone prevails in stablemate showdown?
• LG V40 ThinQ: Absolutely everything we know
• LG G7 ThinQ vs. Google Pixel 2 XL: A brains-versus-brawn comparison
• Here’s every device available through Amazon Prime Exclusive phones

How to add video news sources to the Lenovo Smart Display

Catch up, don’t play catch-up.

Google Home has long allowed users to set which news sources they hear when they ask Assistant to “play the news,” but with the arrival of Smart Displays from Lenovo and others, many of these briefings now have video, too.

That means when you ask your Lenovo Smart Display to “play the news,” you can watch it, too! Here’s how to get it set up.

How to add video sources to your news briefing

All of the work is done inside the Google Home app, because the Lenovo Smart Display is basically a Google Home with a screen. That means that changes made to the news briefing order will affect all other Google Home speakers associated with your account. Keep that in mind if, for example, you’d prefer to watch your news on one screen and listen to it with a different speaker.

Open the Google Home app.
From the home screen, tap on the three-line hamburger menu.

Select More settings.

Scroll down to News and tap on it.
Select Add news sources.
Check off news sources that say “Video available on Smart Displays”.
Optional Return to previous screen and select Change Order.

Optional Move video briefings up to the top of the list.

What video sources are there?

Right now, it’s early days in the life of video news sources inside of Google Assistant, so the selections are slim.

• CNN
• Reuters TV
• Cheddar
• TODAY Show
• CNBC Tech Check
• CNBC
• Bloomberg First Word
• Mad Money Lightning Round
• CNNMoney
• CBS Local News (various markets)

Anything else?

The great thing about this new feature is that even if you don’t want to mess with your existing news briefing list — say you have a Google Home or other Assistant-based speaker — you can always just ask the Lenovo Smart Display to “play Reuters TV” or “show me CNBC,” making it super easy to catch up on the news really quickly.

Amazon’s Fire HD 8 Kids Edition drops to £95 for today only

Treat your kids without breaking the bank.

For today only, you can pick up Amazon’s Fire HD 8 Kids Edition tablet for just £94.99 — that’s down from its usually asking price of £129.99 and within £5 of its previous low price on Prime Day.

Available in Blue, Pink or Yellow, the Kids Edition is a fully-featured Fire HD 8 tablet wrapped in a vibrant, child-friendly and rugged case to prevent the tablet from being damaged. In fact, Amazon is so confident in its ability to protect the device inside that they offer a 2-year ‘worry-free guarantee’ that allows you to return a damaged tablet and have it replaced for free.

It features an 8-inch HD display, quad-core processor, 12-hour battery life and 32GB of on-board storage. You’ll probably want to pick up a microSD card to add more space for movies, games and more — with the money you save on this deal, you could pick up this £15 64GB Samsung microSD card and still have money to spare.

For those not needing the ruggedised Kids Edition, there’s also a promotion running on the regular Fire HD 8 tablet which is down to £84.99 from its usual £99.99 price tag.

For more UK deals coverage, be sure to keep an eye on Thrifter UK, sign up for the newsletter and follow the team on Twitter.

See at Amazon UK

Apple Removes Five of Six Infowars Podcast Series From iTunes Directory

Apple has removed the entire libraries of five Infowars podcasts from the Apple Podcasts platform, Buzzfeed News reported on Sunday.

Among the podcasts removed from Apple’s iTunes index are “War Room” and “The Alex Jones Show”, hosted by the controversial U.S. radio host and conspiracy theory peddler.

Infowars host Alex Jones
A sixth show, “Real News With David Knight”, was the only Infowars podcast to survive Apple’s cull, although why that would be remains unclear.

Apple does not host the podcasts per se but is responsible for running the directory for users of its stock Podcasts app. In explaining its decision to remove the five shows, Apple provided Buzzfeed with the following statement:

“Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users,” a company spokesperson said.

“Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”

In terms of reach and discoverability, the removal of the shows is just the latest in a number of blows for Alex Jones’ Infowars series. Last month, Facebook suspended the host’s personal profile for 30 days for what it said was hate speech and bullying, while Spotify removed several episodes of Jones’ shows last week for violating its hate content policy.

Infowars was founded by Jones in 1999 and the host has garnered a large following, promoting various conspiracy theories including that the September 11 attacks were staged by the U.S. government.

Recently, the show has been heavily criticized for promoting the theory that many gun massacres reported by the U.S. media are faked by left-wing forces in order to usher in more stringent gun control measures.

Jones is currently being sued in Texas by two parents of children murdered in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, after the host claimed the massacre was one such hoax. The Connecticut attack, which took place in 2012, left 26 children and adults dead.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Podcasts
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Honor Play hands-on: A gaming phone for the masses

The Honor Play brings the Kirin 970 to the $300 price point.

Honor is now the fifth-largest handset manufacturer in India, and the brand is continuing to build momentum in the country with its latest product. The Honor Play is the third phone Honor has launched in the country over the last three months, and it’s clear that the Chinese manufacturer is going after Xiaomi’s Mi A2, which is slated to launch in the country later this week.

The highlight of the Honor Play is that it is powered by the Kirin 970, making it the most affordable phone yet to feature HiSilicon’s flagship chipset. The Honor Play also comes with GPU Turbo out of the box, with the feature touted to deliver higher sustained peak performance while gaming. Honor is also rolling out an AI-assisted gaming feature that offers custom haptics when using different weapons in titles like PUBG.

Up front, the design is near-identical to that of the Honor 10, with a large cutout at the top for the front camera and associated display sensors. The 6.3-inch FHD+ (2340×1080) FHD+ display is slightly larger than that of the Honor 10, but the added height doesn’t affect one-handed usage. One key difference is that the fingerprint sensor has been moved to the back of the device, with the front sporting the Honor logo instead.

The back isn’t as exciting, however, as the device features a unibody metal chassis. The phone comes in Navy Blue and Midnight Black color options, and although it isn’t as evocative as the Honor 10, it has a sturdy build quality. And yes, there’s a 3.5mm jack located next to the USB-C charging port at the bottom.

The Honor Play comes with 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM as standard, and the 64GB storage module is based on the UFS2.1 standard. It has dual VoLTE out of the box, and the hybrid SIM card slot lets you use a MicroSD card in the secondary SIM card.

The Kirin 970 is a known quantity at this point — the Honor Play is the sixth device to feature HiSilicon’s chipset. We’ve seen the dedicated NPU on the Kirin 970 in use over the course of 2018, and the experience on the Honor Play is similar to that of the Honor 10 or the P20. A lot of the NPU’s processing power goes toward the AI camera, which significantly boosts the overall image quality, particularly in low-light shooting scenarios.

The Honor Play has a 12MP + 2MP camera configuration at the back, and in real-world shooting scenarios, the camera is on par with the likes of the Mi A2. I’ll go into much more detail over the cameras over the coming weeks, but for now it looks like the AI-assisted feature gives the Honor Play a distinct advantage in this segment.

What do you do when you’re at a boring event? Take a lot of photos. Xiaomi Mi A2 on the left, Honor Play on the right. In this instance, the Play does a much better job. Huawei’s AI is crazy good when it works. pic.twitter.com/9jvq8RQSiS

— Harish Jonnalagadda (@chunkynerd) August 3, 2018

Honor is also rolling out its HiTouch feature that lets you scan real-world objects with the camera, which you’ll then be able to purchase via Amazon India.

On the software front, the Honor Play comes with EMUI 8.2 based on Android 8.1 Oreo. Aside from the addition of features like GPU Turbo, EMUI should be immediately familiar if you’ve used an Honor or Huawei-branded phone in the last 12 months.

The Honor Play is marketed as a gaming phone in China, but as the Indian gaming segment isn’t as mature, the device will be billed as a performance-oriented phone in the country. As for pricing, the Honor Play will be available in the country for ₹19,999 ($290) for the variant with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage will be available for ₹23,999 ($350), just shy of what the Nokia 7 Plus retails for in the country.

It’s clear that Honor is looking to build on the success of the View 10 and the Honor 10, and the aggressive pricing combined with the hardware on offer makes the Honor Play a very enticing option in this category. The phone will go up for sale from 4p.m. on August 6, and is exclusive to Amazon India.

What do you guys make of the Honor Play?

See at Amazon India