The world’s first practical quantum computer has cash and a timeline

Could quantum computing help feed the hungry? That’s one possible way that it will transform the world around us, University of Chicago computer science professor Fred Chong told Digital Trends. According to Chong, in the long-term quantum computers could employ special quantum chemistry algorithms to better understand and improve nitrogen fixation, thereby leading to more energy-efficient production of fertilizers and greater food production.

While that’s still a way off, Chong has reason to be optimistic: his department at the University of Chicago is among seven universities selected to receive a total of $15 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, with the goal of developing the world’s first practical quantum computer over the next five years. They are employing a different approach, based around trapped ions, to the quantum computers developed by companies such as Google. The funding could help make quantum computers that can attack real-world problems.

“Quantum computers have recently been growing in size, but they are still too small to solve practical problems,” Chong said. “This award will allow us to develop better quantum hardware, but also software that is tailored to that hardware. By developing software that adapts to the physics of a specific machine, we expect to solve problems using machines that are up to 1,000 times smaller than with conventional software. One-thousand times smaller means we will be able solve practical problems in five years instead of waiting 25 years for machines to get large enough.”

In terms of what is meant by “practical quantum computing,” Chong said that he hopes to create quantum technology capable of solving a real-world problem faster or nearly as fast as the fastest conventional supercomputer. “We want to demonstrate that even small quantum computers can be competitive with our best conventional technology, and to motivate further development of even larger quantum machines,” he continued.

In the short term, Chong said that he hopes it will be possible to use small quantum computers to model simpler molecules better than conventional supercomputers are able to. Along with the possibility of helping alleviate world hunger, other practical applications of this could include developing far more efficient solar cells.

As well as the University of Chicago, other universities benefitting from this project will include Duke University (project lead), University of Maryland, Tufts University, MIT, University of California, Berkeley, and the University of New Mexico.

Editors’ Recommendations

• To put a quantum computer on your desk, Intel has a plan unlike any other
• Awesome Tech You Can’t Buy Yet: Robo sidekicks, AC for your bed, and more
• ‘Rogue medicine in a bathtub’: 4 experts on the vice and virtue of pharma hacking
• Could Snap save the internet from fake news? Here’s the company’s secret weapon
• These 3D-printed houses could be one-tenth the price of regular homes

Crazybaby’s Air 1S true wireless earbuds won’t make you look like a dork

Audio technology company Crazybaby — responsible for the mad Mars floating speaker — is back with another pair of great looking true wireless, in-ear buds that, unlike the original Air, hopefully won’t actually drive you crazy, baby, with incessant connection problems. The Crazybaby Air 1S share an almost identical design, which is a good thing, but with completely reworked connection tech. This is also a very good thing.

These are true wireless in-ears, so there are no wires to restrict movement, and unlike many other similar products they are not massive. The sleek, teardrop design means they are unobtrusive in your ear, and at 4 grams each, they are also very comfortable. The little buds are stored inside a cylindrical case that also keeps the tiny internal batteries topped up. Crazybaby says a total of 12 hours is possible. A selection of different sized tips come inside the package, along with a pair of covers with a built-in tip that wraps around the whole earbud.

Inside is a carbon nanotube diaphragm, just like the older Air models, with audio customization for more bass, a degree of noise reduction, and 3D virtual surround sound. Each earbud has its own power button with an LED inside to show the status, and they connect independently to your device using Bluetooth 4.2. Crazybaby says the Air 1S headphones introduce new-and-improved connectivity technology and promises a stable, reliable connection.

What makes these different to the previous Crazybaby Air true wireless headphones? Crazybaby is pushing them toward the fitness market, having worked to include an IPX6 rating to resist sweat and rain. Don’t expect any custom fitness tracking technology inside, though, because these are purely for entertainment when you’re at the gym or out on a run. Despite being light on features, the Crazybaby Air 1S should not be overlooked — these are very stylish, and extremely comfortable true wireless earbuds, which is something many will appreciate more than yet another way to count steps.

The price is also very reasonable. The Crazybaby Air 1S earbuds cost $160 and are available to purchase now through the company’s own website. If you really want a pair, pick them up quickly because if you’re one of the first 800 to place an order, the price is reduced to just $100.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Buying on a budget? Here’s the best gear and gadgetry you can get for under $20
• Why I still won’t wear wireless headphones
• The best headphones of 2018
• OnePlus Bullets Wireless headphones hands-on review

Nvidia teases new GeForce RTX 2080 launch at Gamescom next week

Gamers disappointed that Nvidia didn’t unveil a consumer GPU when it unveiled its enterprise-centric Turing architecture at Siggraph 2018 will soon be in for a treat. Nvidia has just posted a teaser YouTube video hinting that it could unveil its next consumer-based GeForce RTX series soon. Given that Gamescom is just around the corner, Nvidia could unveil its next-generation RTX 2080 graphics chip at that venue.

The YouTube video contains hints that Nvidia may be announcing its GeForce RTX 2080 branding at the show. The video contains Discord handles such as RoyTeX (RTX), Not_11, Mac-20, and Eight Tee, which as observant users on Reddit noted would spell out RTX 2080. There has been speculation in the past that Nvidia will complement its GTX series with an RTX line, and that the two GPU families could exist together. “This also further lends credence to our story that the company is pursuing the RTX series as complementary to the GTX series and will add on top of the Pascal lineup and not replace them for now,” wccftech speculated.

“There are even GPS coordinates for Cologne in the Discord messages, and Nvidia unveils the date for its GeForce event by making the ‘2080’ numbers rise up in order at the very end of the teaser,” The Verge reported.

Another hint that the GPU will be announced at Gamescom comes from the location coordinates that Nvidia posted. “In one of the chats, a grid reference for somewhere in Cologne, Germany is posted, but if you enter these into Google Maps, you’ll see that it’s actually somewhere a little north of the Koelnmesse, Gamescom’s main venue,” Trusted Reviews noted.

While Nvidia was coy about its presence at Gamescom previously, the company noted that that there will be “spectacular surprises” and “new PC games running on the latest GeForce hardware.”

Additionally, the promo also shows the handle ‘Ray,’ which could be a hint that some of Nvidia’s ray tracing efforts may also be trickling down to consumer cards. Ray tracing was a major component of Nvidia’s Turing architecture announcement at Siggraph. Nvidia said that the new chipset contains an RT Core, and that the Quadro RTX is the world’s first ray tracing GPU. All that power comes at a cost, and the Quadro RTX 8000 flagship will be priced at $10,000 when it ships. Other key features of that chip include support for NVLink — to connect multiple cards together — and VirtualLink, which is used to connect virtual reality headsets using a single USB-C cable.

With Gamescom scheduled to start on August 21, we won’t have much longer to wait to hear about Nvidia’s branding efforts for its next-generation GeForce GPU and its capabilities.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Why stop at one? Nvidia’s rumored GTX 1180 might double down on cooling fans
• Nvidia confirms its preshow Gamescom event, promises ‘spectacular surprises’
• Nvidia could debut GTX 11 Series graphics cards during Gamescom
• Email shows Nvidia’s GTX 11 Series will start being released in late August
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 11 Series’ arrival is uncertain after Computex remark

Nvidia introduces its eighth-generation ‘Turing’ design, but not in gaming cards

Nvidia introduced its latest graphics chip design, called “Turing,” during the SIGGRAPH 2018 conference. Rumored to be the foundation of Nvidia’s next family of GeForce cards for gamers, the company instead showcased its new eighth-generation design in Quadro RTX-branded cards for professionals: the Quadro RTX 8000, the RTX 6000 and the RTX 5000.

The new GPU architecture introduces RT Cores designed to accelerate ray tracing, a technique in graphics rendering that traces the path of light in the scene so that objects are shaded correctly, light reflects naturally, and shadows fall in their correct locations. Typically this job requires huge amounts of computational power for each frame, taking lots of time to render a photorealistic scene. But Nvidia promises real-time ray tracing, meaning there’s no wait time for the cores to render the lighting of each frame.

For PC gaming, that’s a dramatic leap in visual fidelity. The current rendering method requires a technique called rasterization, which converts the 3D scene into 2D data that’s accepted by the connected monitor. To re-create the 3D environment, the program uses “shaders” to handle the different levels of light, darkness, and color.

“The Turing architecture dramatically improves raster performance over the previous Pascal generation with an enhanced graphics pipeline and new programmable shading technologies,” the company says. “These technologies include variable-rate shading, texture-space shading, and multi-view rendering, which provide for more fluid interactivity with large models and scenes and improved VR experiences.”

According to Nvidia, Turing is the next big leap since the introduction of CUDA. If you’re not familiar with CUDA, graphics cards and discrete GPUs once merely accelerated games for better visual fidelity. But in 2006, Nvidia introduced the integrated CUDA platform that allows its chips to handle general computing as well. In essence, it can work in parallel with a PC’s main processor to handle larger loads at a faster pace. As Nvidia states, Turing promises to be another transition point in computing.

In addition to the RT Cores dedicated to ray tracing, Turing also relies on Tensor Cores to accelerate artificial intelligence. This will accelerate video re-timing, resolution scaling and more for creating “applications with powerful new capabilities.” Turing also includes a new streaming multiprocessor architecture capable of 16 trillion floating point operations along with 16 trillion integer operations each second.

The new Quadro RTX 8000 consists of 4,608 CUDA cores and 576 Tensor cores capable of rendering 10 GigaRays per second, which is a measurement of how many rays can be rendered per pixel each second at a specific frame rate. The card also includes 48GB of onboard memory but capable of using 96GB through NVLink.

Meanwhile, the RTX 6000 is similar save for the memory: 24GB of onboard memory and 48GB through NVLink. The RTX 5000 consists of 3,072 cores, 384 Tensor cores and 16GB of onboard memory (32GB via NVLink). It’s capable of six GigaRays per second.

Companies already on the Quadro RTX bandwagon include Adobe, Autodesk, Dell, Epic Games, HP, Lenovo, Pixar and more.

For gamers, Nvidia’s next big Turing-based reveal is expected to be the GeForce RTX 2080 — not the previously rumored GTX 1180 — during its pre-show Gamescom press event on the 20th of August. Clever.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Nvidia could debut GTX 11 Series graphics cards during Gamescom
• Nvidia teases new GeForce RTX 2080 launch at Gamescom next week
• Email shows Nvidia’s GTX 11 Series will start being released in late August
• Nvidia vs. AMD
• Nvidia’s GTX 11 Series may get people ready for the next generation of VR

Best wireless charging pads for the Galaxy S9

Keep your Galaxy S9 charged without the charging cables.

If you’re upgrading to the Samsung Galaxy S9 in 2018, you’re going to want to try out the wireless charging functionality. There’s a large number of options out there for wireless charging, but not all are made equal.

If you want a reliable wireless charging pad that won’t let you down, check out these great products!

• iOttie iON Wireless Qi Wireless Charging Pad Mini
• Samsung Fast Charge Convertible Wireless Charging Pad
• Samsung Wireless Charging Pad w/ 2A wall adapter
• Anker Wireless Charger
• Spigen Qi Wireless Charging Stand

iOttie iON Wireless Qi Charging Pad Mini

Top Pick

From iOttie comes this stylish charger that’s Qi-compatible with a charging zone capable of 5V/1~2.4A output. Available in Ash Grey or Ruby Red fabric, this is a wireless charger that will look great on your office desk or end table. Get yours for just $30.

See at Amazon

The iOttie iON Wireless Qi Charging Pad Mini features a non-slip ring to hold your phone in place on top while it charges,

It supports Wireless Fast Charging up to 10W for Samsung Galaxy S9, and with an 18W USB-C input you’ll be able to wirelessly charge one phone and then charge a second device with the included USB-A port. A great pick at a great price!

Samsung Fast Charge Convertible Wireless Charging Pad

Best Design

Samsung’s wireless charging pad combines the best wireless charging technologies packed into a really sleek design. Launched alongside the Galaxy S8, it features a premium leather-like appearance and ingenious design which allows you to easily convert this pad into an angled charging stand.

See at Amazon

The Samsung charger also comes with a spare Fast Charge wall adapter, which is a key accessory to ensure your phone charges both quickly and safely. You can snag one of your own from Amazon now in black for $50.

Samsung Wireless Charging Pad

Most to Offer

Samsung’s old style of the wireless charging pad is still a reliable option for the Galaxy S9. These charging pads look like mini-UFOs and are Fast Charge-compatible. It also ships with a Samsung 2A wall charger — always great — and comes with a standard one-year warranty. Get yours for $33.

See at Amazon

This is a great option if you’re looking to set up wireless charging at your home and at work because they’re so cheap right now — only $33. You can also get the older style as a charging stand for around the same price if you prefer the angled look instead.

You may also want to consider this bundle which includes Samsung’s car charger along with two cables (Micro-USB and USB-C) for just $37.

Anker Qi-Certified Wireless Charger Budget Pick

Budget Pick

Our cheapest choice on the list spares no quality or features. Anker, a well-known brand, offers a 7.5W Qi wireless charger that is extremely thin and low-profile but charges your Galaxy S9 quickly for just $20.

See at Amazon

At $20, the Anker Qi-Certified wireless charger has overheating protection with its larger coil that spreads the heat over a wide surface area, and a low-profile 5mm thickness that will practically disappear on any desk or bedside table.

For even faster charging, Anker offers a 10W wireless charger for $22, too.

Spigen Qi Wireless Charging Stand

Best for Office

Spigen’s charging stand is angled, making this a great option for your office desk so you can easily see your display while your phone is charging. Pick yours up for $25 on Amazon.

See at Amazon

Spigen’s option comes with three charging coils so your Galaxy S9 will charge whether in vertical or horizontal orientation. Do not that unlike other options on this list you will need to supply your own wall adapter with this charger.

Update August 2018: Updated the pricing info and shop links for our picks. These are still your best options for wireless charging

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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Older Amazon Fire TV devices finally get a 2013-era Android safeguard

An extra checkpoint will keep unwanted devices from connecting to a Fire TV that had ADB access enabled.

Not too long ago we read about malware that supposedly was taking over older Amazon Fire TV devices. That wasn’t exactly the case, but headlines are gonna headline. The thing was if you enabled the installation of “unknown sources” — which allows applications to be loaded from outside of whatever app store is tied to the device, and is something that doesn’t happen on its own — and then got tricked into loading up this malware, it could spread to other Fire TV devices that happened to have ADB access enabled (which would open up a wireless port for wireless ADB access), and you’d never know it happened.

Let’s be clear: this sort of thing spreads by people sideloading hacky stuff on to their devices and then leaving them vulnerable. Sometimes on purpose, so things “work,” and sometimes because they forgot to close the front door. This malware didn’t just happen, and isn’t something most folks would run into.

This “RSA Key Fingerprint” security checkpoint has been around since Android 4.2.2 in early 2013 — Amazon just never updated for it.

Anyway. A new update to the Fire TV software — Fire TV OS 5.2.6.6, which apparently is starting to roll out — throws one more safeguard into the mix. Now, for an app to be installed from outside the Amazon Appstore over ADB, you’ll first have to enable ADB access — but then you’ll also have to manually approve a connection to another device in addition.

It’s called RSA Key Fingerprinting — basically saying “Yes, it’s cool to connect to this other device, thanks for asking.” And it’s something that was introduced in Android 4.2.2 way the hell back in 2013. (Fire TVs run a version of Android, of course.) The original Fire TV box was released in 2014, but as we all know the Fire TV OS doesn’t line up with mainline releases of Android. To its own peril, sometimes. (And the older Fire TV OS 5 is based on Android 5.1, so there really is no excuse here.)

If you have a newer Fire TV — the 4K dongle or the newer Amazon Fire TV Cube — this was never a problem. And unless you were poking around places without really knowing what you were doing (or were tricked into doing so), it probably wasn’t a problem in the first place.

All this is to say that older Fire TV devices are getting a safety feature that’s 5 years old — and that they really should have had all this time.

Amazon Fire TV

• What’s new on Amazon Prime Video
• Read our full review!
• Get the latest news
• Join the discussion

Buy at Amazon

Google still tracks your location even when you turn off Location History

Mother Google is always watching.

Google Maps is filled with all sorts of tools/features to help you navigate the world around you, one of which is something called “Your Timeline.” Your Timeline uses Location History to create a private view of your exact whereabouts on any given day, and while it’s a pretty neat feature, can be a bit much for privacy-conscious users.

You can disable this by turning off Location History for your Google account, but even after doing this, new evidence from Associated Press reveals that Google still has a few tricks up its sleeves to continue tracking your location.

As per its research, AP notes that the following tracking tools still work even when Location History is disabled.

Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like “chocolate chip cookies,” or “kids science kits,” pinpoint your precise latitude and longitude — accurate to the square foot — and save it to your Google account.

The argument is that turning off a feature called “Location History” should eliminate Google from following your location no matter what, but according to a representative from the company, that’s not necessarily the case.

There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people’s experience, including: Location History, Web and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services. We provide clear descriptions of these tools, and robust controls so people can turn them on or off, and delete their histories at any time.

In addition to turning off Location History, users must also disable Web and App Activity to prevent Google from tracking your location through these other means. Additionally, while you can delete the data on your Maps timeline, each day needs to be deleted one by one.

Google does give you controls for stopping all location data from being stored, but as AP points out, these controls aren’t properly labeled for consumers. Turning off Location History should stop all location data from being tracked, but as we now know, that simply isn’t the case.

What do you think about this discovery? Is Google being clear enough about how it tracks users’ location or is there still work to be done here? Let us know in the comments below!

How to view your location history in Google Maps

Dark themes on Android should be the norm, not the exception

You don’t know the power of the dark side!

Once upon a time, Android cloaked itself in shadow and cerulean. Triumphant cries of #YOLOHOLO rang out throughout the net as users reveled in a mobile experience that didn’t blind them like the sun every time they checked their phone in bed. But then a shift came. Material Design ushered in a new age of bright, white Android apps, and one by one, even Google’s own apps were drained of their contrast and their charcoal. The manufacturers followed in Google’s footprints and system theme after system theme was dragged into the light.

Today, dark themes on Android are an exception, an increasingly uncommon feature sought out by users almost as fervently as it is avoided by nearly all major services and manufacturers. Android Pie dashed the hopes of a system-wide dark theme for another year, and none of Google’s most prominent apps have dark themes available for their Android apps.

This is unfortunate for users, but even more so for the developers that shun the darkness, for there are a holy trinity of benefits to these devilishly dark designs.

Hexes and helpers

Dark themes can help your device last longer — with a catch

Legends of dark themes whisper of miraculous power-saving, of letting a phone’s screen sip battery like a fine whiskey for days instead of mere hours. It is indeed possible for a dark theme to be a boon to your battery when two conditions are met:

• The phone uses an AMOLED display, where black pixels remain powered off and unilluminated
• The app uses true, hex black — #000000 — for the majority of the dark theme

If your phone uses an LCD or IPS display, it doesn’t matter if the theme uses hex black: your phone’s entire screen is illuminated and drawing power. If an app developer uses anything above #000000 — the HOLO days of Android used charcoal gradients — then every pixel is turned on and drawing power on an AMOLED screen. For a dark theme to be even possibly battery saving, the majority of the theme needs to be true black with the rest of the theme using high contrast colors for text, buttons, and accents.

Dark themes are better for AMOLED displays — as long as they’re using true hex black.

This powered-down perk does come with a drawback of its own. When an app uses hex black aka AMOLED black, scrolling text and swift movements can look jittery as individual pixels on your phone turn on and off. This is part of why dark themes on apps like Twitter use a dark color rather than true black, so every pixel stays on and the app doesn’t look stuttery or slow when scrolling through your feed.

The problem with using a dark color instead of true black in a dark theme is that it lowers the contrast, and high contrast is more than a want for dark themes: it’s an Accessibility need.

See in the dark

Dark themes aren’t just good; they’re good for you

High contrast modes are available for just about computing platform on the planet because for users with low vision, color-blindness, as well as for older users with eye strain — younger users with eye strain like me. High contrast is easier for those of us with bad eyes to read, and for everyone else, high contrast makes it easier to read/browse/work on a phone or computer for longer.

Darkness comes with a price on Android right now: images are inverted, too.

Unfortunately, high-contrast mode on most platforms is just a color inverter. It doesn’t change any hard-to-read fonts to something more legible, text isn’t enlarged or spread out any better, and on Android and Chrome OS, all photos and videos are inverted, too, which makes for a trippy experience when browsing music apps or social media. These high contrast modes are also all-or-nothing, so services that naturally offer dark themes like YouTube Music are almost as blinding as an empty Google Doc.

By offering and encouraging more high contrast dark themes, Android could make itself easier on the eyes of heavy users and low-vision users, letting us keep using our favorite phones and favorite apps long into the night without our retinas yelling at us.

In the dark of the night

Dark themes let users browse and binge all night long

Because high-contrast themes with pure black backgrounds and properly spaced text are easier to read and use for longer periods of time, what a good dark theme means to a developer is more screen time, more engagement and likely more revenue.

The longer we can use an app, the more money its developer can make.

For apps that are ad-supported, the longer someone uses the app, the more ads they’ll scroll through and the more money the developer will get. For apps that have in-app purchases or premium upgrades, the longer a user can spend in an app before their eyes need a break or the battery runs down, the more likely they are to go premium.

And the longer we can use our apps before our eyes beg for oblivion and our batteries beg for a charger, the longer and longer into the night we can use our Android phones for anything and everything.

Snuff out the light

Android Pie may not have brought the dark revolution that we were hoping for, but dark themes are continuing to creep back in from the shadows of Android. Android Pie included a toggle to let Quick Settings and system popups be dark, and YouTube should soon finally get its long-awaited dark theme, but there could be so much more.

Dark themes are better for our eyes, better for our batteries and better for developers’ bottom lines. The time has finally come for Android and its developers to come back over to the dark side, so head to your favorite app, dive into the settings and find the “Send feedback” or “Contact developer” option.

Tell them to come to the dark side. We have cookies.

A widespread Instagram hack is locking users out of their accounts

Here’s your destination for all things Insta!

When you think of social media apps, one of the first that probably comes to mind in Instagram.

Launched back in October 2010 as an iOS exclusive, Instagram has quickly grown up to be the most popular platform for sharing photos and videos with people around the world.

Whether you need a refresher of the app or want to stay on top of the latest news surround it, here’s everything you need to know about Instagram.

The latest Instagram news

August 14, 2018 – Instagram users are reporting a strange hack that locks them out of their accounts

Since the beginning of August, Instagram users have reported a bizarre hack: users will be ‘logged out’ of their account, and once they go to log back in, their username will no longer exist. Their handle will be changed, along with their profile picture, as well as the email and phone number that’s connected to the account, making it impossible to access their information.

On Twitter, there have been more than 100 of these types of anecdotal reports in the last 24 hours alone. According to data from analytics platform Talkwalker, there have been more than 5,000 tweets from 899 accounts mentioning Instagram hacks just in the last seven days. Many of these users have been desperately tweeting at Instagram’s Twitter account for help. (Mashable)

Once the accounts have been hacked, the picture is typically set to a Disney or Pixar character. The email associated with the accounts is switched to a Russian .ru email address. Their bios and personal information are also deleted.

To prevent things like this from happening to your Instagram account, we recommend turning on two-factor authentication. Plenty of users who have been affected by the hack didn’t have two-factor authentication turned on — however, it is worth noting that even having this extra security step might not fully keep your IG profile safe.

The extra security measure didn’t protect Chris Woznicki, who was using two-factor authentication at the time his account was hacked 10 days ago. Woznicki says Instagram sent him security emails notifying him the email address on his account had been changed (once again, to a .ru address) and 2FA had been disabled. But by the time he saw the messages, it was too late and he had already lost access to his account, which had 660 followers. Others have reported similar occurrences. (Mashable)

July 19, 2018 — Instagram now shows you when your friends are online

If you frequently send direct messages to other Instagram users, you’ll now that there’s never been a way to know if your friends/followers are online and actively using the app. Thankfully, this changes today!

As part of a new update, Instagram will now show you when other people are online. On your inbox page for DMs and when browsing your friends list to share a post from your main feed, you’ll begin to see a green indicator next to profile pictures of other users if they’re on the app at that time. With this, it’ll be much easier to know if you’ll get an immediate response from someone if you send them a private message.

All the big details

The Home tab is where you’ll spend most of your time

When you’re using Instagram, most of your time will likely be spent on the Home tab. This is the page you’re taken to each time you open the app, and it acts as a central hub for everything Instagram has to offer.

At the very top, you’ll see three icons. From left to right, these are for taking a photo for Instagram Stories, opening IGTV, and going to your inbox for direct messages. Below that are circles for people you follow so you can view any of their Instagram Stories posts.

Underneath all of this is your main feed. Here, you’ll be able to endlessly browse through posts from people and hashtags you follow. On each post there are buttons for liking it, leaving a comment, privately sending it to one of your contacts, and adding it to your Saved page (more on that later).

Find new stuff on the Explore page

If you tap on the magnifying glass icon at the very bottom, you’ll be redirected to the Explore page.

On Explore, you can scroll through photos/videos from people and hashtags you might not be following but that Instagram thinks you’ll be interested in nonetheless.

You can search for a specific person or hashtag at the very top, and below that are recommended categories to filter the page by — including things like Humor, Animals, TV & Movies, and more. By default, this is set to For You.

Play around with the editing tools

Editing photos has been a big part of Instagram for years, and in 2018, that hasn’t changed one bit.

After selecting a photo you want to post, you can browse through a list of numerous filters. As you tap each one, you’ll instantly see how it’s going to affect the look of your picture. If you don’t like any of the filters you’re seeing, keep swiping to the left until you see the Manage button. Tap on this and you can add even more to your collection.

In addition to filters, tapping the Edit button at the bottom will allow you to fine-tune your photos even more with controls for the brightness, contrast, fade, highlights, etc. And, if all else fails, tapping the sunshine icon at the top-middle will enable you to control the Lux for your post and instantly ramp up the saturation and brightness for a much more vibrant-looking photo.

Take advantage of the Saved feature

If you come across a post on Instagram that you particularly like, it’s easy to save it for later without notifying anyone.

When looking at the post you want to save, tap the bookmark icon at the very right. Once you do this, head over to your profile,tap that same icon once again, and it’ll be right there for your viewing pleasure.

No one is notified when you add their photos to the Saved section, and if you want to go a step further, you can create a Collection to categorize the posts you add here.

Be sure to check out IGTV

This past June, Instagram added one of the biggest new features to its app in years — IGTV.

IGTV is Instagram’s take on long-form video, and unlike something such as YouTube, is designed around having people create and share vertical video content.

You can access IGTV through the main Instagram app or by downloading the standalone IGTV one, and upon opening it, you’re able to browse through videos from people you follow and what’s currently trending/popular.

IGTV clearly has a long ways to go before it’s on the same level as YouTube, but even this early on in its life has a lot going for it. The interface is easy to understand, it’s integrated nicely into an app that billions of people are already using, and anyone can make their own IGTV content and manage it through their phone or a web client.

Download: IGTV (free)

There’s more to see with Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories is basically Instagram’s way of taking Snapchat head-on, and while I briefly mentioned it in this guide, there’s not enough time to dive into everything it has to offer.

Thankfully, Hayato already put together a fantastic guide going through absolutely everything you could want to know about Stories. Check it out below!

Instagram Stories on Android: Everything you need to know!

NVIDIA’s new Shield TV bundle throws in a Samsung SmartThings Link

The whole smash costs $219, but we’re already seeing it on sale.

NVIDIA today announced a new bundle for Shield TV. Dubbed the Shield TV Smart Home Edition, you get a Shield TV (which is still an excellent option for cord-cutters and the only Android TV box we recommend), the non-rechargeable voice remote, and a Samsung SmartThings Link — a USB fob that you’ll plug into the back of your Shield TV to enable access to Samsung Smart Things. That gets you all the power of Smart Things living alongside Google Assistant, which is pretty cool.

And you get it all for $219.

(Actually, if you go the Best Buy route you’ll save $20.)

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