Tired of getting screwed by airlines? Score great deals on tickets with Hopper (Review)

Let’s face it, buying a plane ticket is a terrible experience. The price that you get today in your searches is not the same as the one you will see tomorrow. You never know if you are getting a good deal or if waiting would be better for your wallet. What if waiting backfires and you end up paying more than you should?

While the absurd state of plane ticketing is a topic for another article, it is time to highlight Hopper, one of the most useful services in the Play Store. Search for a flight, mark it as watched, and let Hopper do its magic.

Developer: Hopper Inc.
Price: Free

Setup

When launching the app, Hopper shows a small onboarding screen with information about what it does. The premise of Hopper is really simple: search for a flight, watch it, and Hopper will check for the best deals on the internet. The app claims to watch “billions of flight prices a day” in order to give you the best deals and to predict if prices are going to increase or go down.

Overview

The app consists of four different tabs: Watch, Notifications, Search, and Trips. The Watch tab is where all of your watched flights will appear. They will also have a label recommending you to either wait for a better price or to buy a ticket now. The Notifications tab shows all of the information that Hopper has gathered about your flights. The service relies heavily on push notifications, but you can also see here how your flights are doing in case you want to remember previous notifications you received.

Read more: Apps Sale review – the simple way to discover which paid apps have gone free & on sale

The Search tab is the most important in the application since this is where Hopper’s service truly shines. The application asks you for your origin and your destination. Fancy a romatic trip to Paris with your significant other? How about to a getaway to the always-warm Canary Islands? What about New York, home of the most convoluted subway service I have ever seen? The world is at your fingertips.

Hopper then shows what is, in my opinion, the most useful screen in any flight-related service. A color-coded calendar will be shown to you, displaying shades of red for days that are in high demand (thus commanding higher prices) and greenish colors for days that are more wallet-friendly. This screen is incredibly useful in a plethora of situations, primarily if you have flexible dates for your flight and are looking for the lowest prices.

This screen also displays a couple of useful options. You can decide if you want to search for round trip tickets or one way only. Also, you can choose if you want tickets with basic fares (which normally strip you from benefits such as checked baggage, food, or seat selection), and the number of layovers.

Afterward, the app will show the current lowest price, along with a prediction about how the prices will vary in the following days. Since Hopper has been doing this for years, it has a sizeable amount of historic data, which allows it to do a decent prediction about the fluctuation of prices in the following weeks.

In case you decide to buy a ticket now, the application shows a trip summary along useful information, such as cancellation terms, changes fees, and baggage allowance. You can buy a ticket from the app, but you need to create an account in order to do that. This isn’t a problem at all right? Wrong.

To create an account, Hopper asks for your phone number. There is no way of creating an account with your email, for example. Since Hopper earns money by selling the tickets themselves, one would think that they would make it easier for you to spend money on the app. However, giving away your phone number is a huge turnoff that limits the number of people that is willing to create an account.

The final tab is called Trips. Here, you will be able to see the trips that you have bought from the application itself. I haven’t been able to see this screen in action. This is a combination of me refusing to create an account with my phone number, and me being too poor for plane tickets. Sad times.

Options

Under the Trips tab, you will also find the Settings screen. It is pretty barebones but it has a few noteworthy options. You can see the Terms & Conditions and the Privacy Policy, which I highly recommend you to read in case you create an account. Also, you can sign up for an account or sign in in case you have one already. Finally, there is also an option to change the currency in which the prices all over the app are shown. There is A LOT of currencies available, so chances are you will find yours here.

Conclusion

Our phones are full of useful services that make us more productive and allow us to accomplish more. However, when the time comes to take a well-deserved rest, Hopper is there to alleviate the pains of looking for a plane ticket. Just mark a flight as watched and Hopper will shoot reliable and trustworthy notifications every once in a while.

I have used this service for years, and I can attest to the usefulness of it, having scored decent deals thanks to its constant scanning of ticket prices. Aside from the fact that creating an account inexplicably asks you for your phone number, with no other options, Hopper is one of the most reliable services in the Play Store. Let Hopper show you the world.

Download and install Hopper from the Google Play Store.

No more scraping? Anti-frosting advance could mark end of frozen windshields

Virginia Tech

With autonomous and flying cars on the horizon, there’s a whole lot that we’re excited about in the automotive world. But ask us on a frosty Monday morning in darkest winter as we’re scraping the ice off our windshield while muttering curse words under our breath, and you’ll find us to be a lot less enthused. In those moments, the car-related technology we want more than anything else in the world is a frost-resistant windshield.

Fortunately, researchers from Virginia Tech appear to have heard our agonized prayers. With this precise goal in mind, they have invented what they claim to be the world’s first passive anti-frosting surface, which is capable of staying 90 percent dry and frost free in frigid conditions. And all without the need for chemical or energy inputs to make it work.

“Everyone is familiar with the concept of laying salts down on the ground before a big snowstorm,” Jonathan Boreyko, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, told Digital Trends. “Salts are a hygroscopic chemical, which means that they are a very good humidity sink, capable of sucking up nearby moisture and water to keep the surrounding surface dry.

“However, there are two big problems with using salts to combat icing. First, as the salt crystals absorb water from the air and surrounding ice, they become diluted and quickly lose their hygroscopic properties. This is why we have to lay down salt over and over again, to the tune of about 10 million tons per year in the U.S. alone. Second, the practice of laying down salts has been well-established to contaminate the environment, especially the groundwater.”

What the Virginia Tech researchers have done is to take this concept of using a hygroscopic chemical to minimize frosting as a starting point. But instead of using salt, they machined patterns of micro-grooves into the surface of sample material they created. These microscopic grooves function as sacrificial areas, creating stripes of intentional ice when it is freezing. Because ice has the same low-pressure properties as salts, the intermediate areas between these stripes stay completely dry from condensation or frost, since the humid air is instead attracted to the ice stripes.

“We are currently in serious talks with both aerospace and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) companies to see if we can apply this technology to airplanes or the outdoor heat exchanger of heat pumps,” Boreyko said. “The heat pump idea, for example, would involve patterning the ice stripes on the array of micro-fins that are already on the outer portion of an outdoor heat exchanger, to keep the interior of the unit dry from frost.”

A paper describing this research was recently published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Solar-powered nanoscale coating could defrost frozen car windows
• Headed to a festival this summer? Here’s the best gear you can get for camping
• Get your Sagan on with 60 awe-inspiring photos of the final frontier
• Beat the heat this summer with an affordable air conditioner
• All of the high-tech materials that make modern outdoor gear great

Japanese billionaire faces tricky task of choosing 8 artists for his moon trip

He’s going to the moon (with eight artists): Yusaku Maezawa

So, who do you think Yusaku Maezawa should take with him on his five-day round trip to the moon when he travels there aboard SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) in 2023?

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Monday named the wealthy Japanese entrepreneur as its very first paying passenger for the planned fly-by of the faraway rock.

Maezawa, who made his fortune in online fashion retail, surprised the gathered crowd at SpaceX’s headquarters when he revealed that he wants to invite as many as eight artists on the once-in-a-lifetime space trip.

He said each artist should be established in a field such as painting, photography, music, movies, fashion design, and architecture, adding that he hasn’t decided who to ask yet.

It sounds rather like the “fantasy dinner guest list” game for the billionaire club, though this is for real and will … perhaps … OK, maybe … actually happen. In that case, 42-year-old Maezawa will need to choose his travel companions with the utmost care. In space, no one can hear you scream, but things could get rather raucous inside the capsule if any of those titanic egos clash hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth. If they stick a few cameras on board, it could turn out like a space-based Celebrity Big Brother. How cool would that be?

There’ll be huge pressure, too, on the artists who accept the invitation, as Maezawa wants his fellow space travelers to use their experience as inspiration for a new piece of art. Presumably, the Japanese billionaire will gracefully accept whatever each person comes up with after the trip, even if it’s a papier-mâché model of the lunar surface, or a T-shirt with a picture of the moon printed on it (perfect for a collaboration between the fashion designer and the photographer), or even a catchy song with the lyrics: “The moon is great, We love the moon, Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

But the big question is, if Maezawa invites Elon Musk — the man behind SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, and Hyperloop, and who many consider as an artist of sorts — will he accept it? It would certainly be hard for the man who owns the company that built the rocket to say no. Though if he did, he’d definitely need an excuse better than “Sorry, I need to get my hair cut that day” to convince Maezawa and his fellow passengers that BFR doesn’t actually stand for Big F—— Risk.

Editors’ Recommendations

• SpaceX to send Japanese billionaire on moon trip, but he won’t be going alone
• 5 reasons why you shouldn’t be surprised Elon Musk smoked weed
• Who will be the first private passenger to the moon? SpaceX will tell us today
• What kind of mini car does Tesla CEO Elon Musk have in mind?
• This 21-year-old’s 3D-printed aquatic jetpack makes scuba fins look prehistoric

5 cheaper alternatives to the Bose QC35

We’ve shown a lot of love for the Bose QC35s here on Android Central, and while we definitely recommend checking them out, we also understand that not everyone is willing to throw down $350 on a pair of headphones. If you still want a pair of quality cans but also want to save some cash, these are our five favorite cheaper alternatives!

For the bass lovers

Sony XB950N1 Extra Bass Wireless Headphones

The XB950N1 pack a big punch despite being $100 less than the QC35s. These have the most bass out of any other headphones on our list, there’s Bluetooth and NFC support, and all settings can be configured via the Sony Headphones Connect app.

$248 at Amazon

Available in three unique colors

Cowin E7 Active Noise Canceling Headphones

The Corwin E7 is Amazon’s Choice for noise canceling headphones, and for good reason. Available in three colors (black, white, and purple), the E7 offers 40mm large-aperture drivers, deep bass, active noise canceling, and Bluetooth + NFC connectivity. The battery’s also rated for 30 hours of use on a single charge!

$69 at Amazon

The cheapest pick on our list

TaoTronics Active Noise Canceling Headphones

TaoTronics’ headphones punch way above their $50 price tag. The noise canceling works great, the ear cups swivel 90° so you can get the perfect fit, and the 30 hours of battery life is fantastic. The dual 40mm drivers are powerful and a built-in mic allows for voice calls.

$53 at Amazon

The QC35s’ closest competitor

Sony WH1000XM2 Noise Canceling Headphones

For around $50 less than the QC35s, Sony’s WH100XM2 are considered to be some of the best headphones you can buy right now. You get 30 hours of battery, top-of-the-line noise canceling, Bluetooth and NFC, and plenty more.

$298 at Amazon

24-hour battery life and great Bluetooth range

Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2

Last but not least, Plantronics BackBeat Pro 2 offers a lot of value for well under $200. You can listen for up to 24 hours on a single charge, the Bluetooth range is up to 100 meters, and you get a free travel case. Plantronics also touts natural mid-tones rich bass, crisp highs, and superior noise cancelation.

$172 at Amazon

You’ve got options

If you’re on a particularly tight budget, the Cowin E7 and TaoTronics headphones offer some of the best bang-for-your-buck around. They might not be the most premium headphones ever, but they sound great and definitely get the job done. The Sony WH1000XM2 are still pretty expensive, but as we mentioned above, they’re widely considered to be among the best headphones at any price. No matter what you end up choosing, you really can’t go wrong.

How to enable spoken announcements in Google Fit

It can be a bit distracting to have to check your phone to see how far you’ve been biking. Fortunately, it’s easy to get Fit to just tell you your progress.

If you’re spending the day riding your bike, it’s natural to want to know how far you’ve ridden so far. But trying to open your phone when you should be focusing on the road is always a bad idea. Thankfully, it’s not hard to have your progress spoken to you.

Products used in this guide

• Any Android smartphone
• Google Play Store: Google Fit (Free)
• Amazon: TicWatch Pro ($250)

How to enable spoken announcements on your smartphone

Open the Google Fit application.
Tap Profile in the lower-right corner.

Tap the Settings icon in the upper-right corner.

Scroll to the bottom of the list.
Tap Spoken announcements.
Select when you want the announcements.

That’s it! Google Fit will let you know what your progress is, either through your phone’s speaker or your headphones.

How to enable spoken announcements on your Wear OS watch

Open the Google Fit application**.
Tap Settings.
Tap Workouts.
Tap Spoken announcements/
Select when you want the announcements.

Our top equipment picks

If you’re all in on Google Fit, it’s worth getting a Wear OS watch to track your workouts right from your wrist.

The best watch for Google Fit

Mobvoi TicWatch Pro

$250 at Amazon

The best Wear OS watch is also the best for tracking your workouts.

The Ticwatch Pro features a GPS tracker, heart-rate monitor, and NFC payments.

The Ticwatch Pro is a genuinely good watch even if you don’t care about fitness tracking. If you do, it’s even better. There’s a GPS chip to better track your jogs, a heart-rate monitor for keeping your beats in check, and an NFC chip so you can leave your phone at home and still use Google Pay.

Vizio’s new Dolby Atmos home theater sound system makes its debut at $500

Your favorite films and shows get even better with these stellar sound bars.

Earlier this year, Vizio announced that it would begin offering Dolby Atmos and Google Chromecast audio support integrated into three new sound bars. While two of the sound bars have yet to see a release, the first has just been made available for order at select retailers such as Best Buy.

The first release from the new line is Vizio’s 5.1.2-Channel Soundbar System. At the $500 price point, it’s one of the more affordable Dolby Atmos sound bars on the market currently compared to options like Sony’s HT-Z9F sound bar and the LG SJ9 sound bar. It features two upward-firing speakers that send sound above and around you for a more realistic surround sound experience, while its wireless subwoofer along with the five front-firing speakers help to balance the sound further.

The new sound bars also feature Google Assistant built-in for voice control, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Chromecast so you can stream your favorite tracks directly to the speakers. Their metal-finished woven covers provide a sleek look for your entertainment setup, and there are also one-touch controls on the sound bars themselves in case you don’t have the remote or the Vizio SmartCast Mobile app handy.

The 5.1.2-Channel version of Vizio’s Home Theater Sound System with Dolby Atmos is now available at Best Buy for $500; Sam’s Club has it too with an exclusive $50 discount, though it’s currently out of stock there. Soon enough, you’ll also be able to locate 3.1.2 and 5.1.4-Channel versions priced at $800 and $1,000 respectively via Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

See at Vizio

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance partners with Google to fix infotainment

We should start seeing the results of this deal in 2021.

It’s no secret that the various dashboards and infotainment consoles in cars are almost universally bad, plagued with clunky software and laggy performance. Android Auto tackled this problem by letting your phone take over the in-car display, but it’s hard to beat a system that just works on its own.

That’s why Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, the largest automotive alliance in the world whose member companies sold over 10 million vehicles just last year, is partnering with Google in a multiyear agreement to integrate Android services into its vehicles’ infotainment systems.

Scheduled to start in 2021, the systems in new vehicles made by Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi will run on Android, featuring services like Google Maps, Google Assistant, and even the Play Store. Just as you’d find different forked versions of Android on phones from different manufacturers, each brand will have the freedom to customize the Android experience to their liking — for better or worse.

This shift towards Android and Google services is part of the Alliance’s 2022 mid-term plan to better equip its vehicles with “next-generation technology,” which it’s hoping will help reach its increased sales goal of over 14 million units per year by the end of 2022.

All About Android Auto

• Getting started with Android Auto in your car
• Using Android Auto natively on your phone
• Android Auto news
• Waze on Android Auto
• Join the Android Auto discussion!

Take control of your smart TV with the new Logitech K600 keyboard

Time for some 70-inch gaming.

Logitech is no stranger to wireless keyboards, and the newest product is just improving on what the company already does best. Available in October for $69.99, the new Logitech K600 TV Keyboard is designed especially for use with Smart TVs. You can check to see if your TV is compatible here. You can also get your pre-orders in. Remember that this will work just as well with other Bluetooth-compatible devices like your computer.

This has a trackpad along the side of the QWERTY keyboard as well as a ton of buttons for media controls. You can even use the directional pad to make your keyboard a full remote control. The K600 also has a 15-meter wireless range and a year-long battery life. While the new model will be pricier than its predecessors, such as the K400 keyboard, the additional price is arguably worthwhile since it takes your keyboard from a regular old wireless model to one with way more features. Make sure to sign up for the Thrifter newsletter to be alerted when it goes on sale, and remember that you can pre-order now if you’re interested.

See at Logitech

Amazon’s Fire 7 tablet, standing desks, and more are discounted today

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

We found plenty of great deals today that include big discounts on Amazon’s Fire 7 tablet, Flexispot standing desks, Sugru moldable glue and much more!

View the rest of the deals

If you want to know about the deals as soon as they are happening, you’ll want to follow Thrifter on Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter, because missing out on a great deal stinks!

Canada Daily Deals: Anker charging gear, Zolo true wireless earphones, more

Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.

We found plenty of great deals today that include big discounts on a range of Anker charging accessories, Zolo truly wireless earphones, mobile device storage, Contigo travel mugs and much more…

View the rest of the deals

Each day, the Thrifter Canada team scouts out and shares amazing deals on products you know and love, helping you find the best prices on the ‘net.

For more Canadian deals coverage, be sure to keep an eye on Thrifter CA and follow the team on Twitter.