UK Deal: Save up to 25% on Amazon devices for a limited time

Amazon is offering some great discounts on a variety of its own hardware — but these deals won’t last forever!

Amazon has today dropped prices across a range of its own-brand hardware including devices in the Echo smart speaker and Fire tablet lineups. These are some of the best prices we have seen on these devices outside of major shopping holidays like Prime Day and Black Friday, so it’s a great time to pick up whatever you need while supplies last.

Standout deals include a £20 saving off the current-generation Amazon Echo, currently down to just £69.99, and the latest Amazon Echo Spot at £99.99 — also £20 off.

Some of our other favourite deals in the promotion include:

• Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote (1st Gen) – £34.99 (Was £40)
• Echo Dot (2nd Gen) – £34.99 (Was £50)
• Echo Plus (1st Gen + free Philips Hue bulb) – £99.99 (Was £140)
• Fire 7 Tablet – £39.99 (Was £50)
• Fire HD 8 Tablet – £59.99 (Was £80)
• Fire HD 10 Tablet – £119.99 (Was £150)
• 2x Echo Show (2nd Gen) + 2x Philips Hue bulbs – £339.98 (Was £470)

Be sure to check out the full range included in the promotion, with different colours and capacities discounted to varying levels.

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

See at Amazon UK

How to use an old phone as a dash cam

Your old Android phone makes a great dash cam because it can do a lot more than just record the road.

A dash cam is a really cool thing to have. You never know when you’ll see something worth recording on the road until it’s too late (never whip out your phone for a photo while driving!) and sometimes you need to document what happened in case of an accident or another traffic incident. Someone you know probably has a dash cam and is glad they had it at least once.

Dash cams are also pretty cheap nowadays, but they are also pretty basic. If you’re going to have something attached to your windshield, why not use something that can do so much more than “just” record the road? Your old Android phone can make for a great dash cam, and if you want to put a SIM card in it or tether to your current phone, it can become a standalone GPS unit or music player, too. Beats sending it to the recycle center, right?

Here’s what you’ll need and how to go about doing it.

The gear

You’ll need your old phone, of course. But you’ll also need a few cheap accessories to get it in place and keep it running.

• You’ll need a car charger and cable long enough to reach. You don’t need anything fancy here because you won’t be trying to quick charge anything or worry about supplying a lot of power. An $8 Amazon Basics USB car charger and a long charging cable like this 15-foot model for $8 is fine. Just make sure you use the right cable for your phone — USB-C cables will be a little more expensive.

• You’ll also need a good dash mount. That doesn’t mean the prettiest one; it means the one that will hold your phone in place with the camera lens uncovered without obstructing your view of the road. On that note, be sure to check any local laws about sticking anything to your windshield because the local police will know those laws and tickets are expensive. Everyone loves the $25 iOttie One touch Dashboard & Windshield mount and my wife swears by the $10 INCART Rearview Mirror Phone Holder. Make sure you buy something that will fit your phone and allow the camera lens to see the road and you’re set.

• Next you need some software. Google Play is chock full of apps that can act as a dash recorder, but most everyone loves AutoBoy Dash Cam and Black Box. It’s filled with features that will remind you why a phone makes for a better dash cam that one you can buy. You’ll find features like auto-start and stop, GPS tracking, and more in AutoBoy, and best of all it’s free. There are plenty of others, though, and you might want to try them all and see if you like another better. If you do, let me know, please!

This is all easy to figure out how to use. Put the mount in place, put your phone in it, and run the cord so it won’t get tangled up in anything while you’re trying to drive. These little stick-on cable clips can be a lifesaver for that. Make everything nice an neat, but be sure you’re able to take the phone out of its mount easily and you’re good to go.

Don’t forget it’s there

The biggest downside to any dash cam also apply when using a phone — people will steal it and the sun can ruin it.

Phones, locked cars, and hot sunlight don’t mix.

Never leave a phone in a mount right on the windshield for passing thieves to see because that will lead to broken windows and stolen stuff. Just because a phone is old to you and makes for a good dash cam doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a nice prize for people who steal things out of cars. Unfortunately, those people do exist.

And it’s never a good idea to leave any sensitive electronics inside a hot vehicle exposed to the sun. Especially ones with a lithium battery inside. Either use a windshield shade or pull it out of the mount and toss it in the glove box (or carry it with you) to mitigate both of these issues.

Most of all, be safe. Anytime you mix a gadget with a car there is an urge to start messing with stuff. Don’t do it! That’s the whole purpose of using a specialized app for this instead of just using your phone’s built-in camera app, and while we hope you never need to document anything for your insurance company, we especially don’t want it to happen because you couldn’t resist touching stuff. Be smart and have fun!

Huawei’s ‘One More Thing’: 7.2 inch grote Mate 20 X

Naast de Huawei Mate 20 en Mate 20 Pro trok Huawei nog een toestel uit de hoge hoed; de 7.2 inch grote Huawei Mate 20 X. Onpraktisch groot maar daardoor wel erg geschikt voor het verslinden van content en lange tijd spelen van games. Eén nadeel; het toestel komt hier officieel niet uit.

Eigenlijk houden we niet zo van verrassingen maar die van Huawei kunnen we ergens wel waarderen. De Mate 20 X lijkt een toestel waar eigenlijk niemand op zit te wachten, hij is onpraktisch groot, te bedienen met een pen en voorzien van een een nieuw type koeling om het hoofd bij games koel te houden. Dit tegendraadse karakter is juist iets wat wij wel kunnen waarderen. Wat dat betreft is het jammer dat Huawei geen plannen heeft hem hier uit te brengen. Mogelijk volgt hij later nog als grijze import.

De Huawei Mate 20 X met M-Pen

De Mate 20 X lijkt een grotere variant van de Mate 20 met een notch in de vorm van een druppel. Toch is hier gebruik gemaakt van niet een LCD-scherm maar van een OLED-paneel, net als in de Mate 20 Pro. Ditmaal meet hij 7,2 inch waarmee hij ideaal is voor het lange tijd bekijken van video, spelen van games of bladeren door webpagina’s. De batterij van 5000 mAh moet je telefoonverslaving mogelijk maken. Ben je meer van het content maken in plaats van verslinden dan is het goed om te weten dat er een aparte pen verkrijgbaar zal zijn om mee te tekenen; de Huawei M-Pen. Deze kent 4096 verschillende drukniveau’s; net als Samsung’s S Pen. Jammer is dat de pen niet op te bergen is in het toestel wat de kans vergroot om hem kwijt te raken.

Ultieme gaming-telefoon

Net als alle andere Mate 20-modellen maakt de Huawei Mate 20 X gebruik van Huawei’s eigen Kirin 980-chipset al is hier gekozen voor een ander type koeling. Net als de Razer Phone 2 maakt de 20 X gebruik van een Vapor Chamber maar nu in combinatie met grafeen. Deze combinatie moet hitte veel sneller afvoeren. Hoe koeler de processor is hoe beter hij piekprestaties kan neerzetten, iets wat vooral bij gaming essentieel is. Om de game-ervaring compleet te maken is er stereo geluid. Verder kent het toestel de kenmerkende drievoudige Leica-camera achterop die gecombineerd met het nodige AI-geweld uitstekende foto’s moet schieten. Allemaal leuk en aardig maar niet iets waar je wat aan hebt zolang hij hier niet verkrijgbaar is. Uiteraard houden we dat scherp voor je in de gaten.

Google gebruikt weer Samsung-scherm in Pixel 3 en 3 XL

Na een kort maar ongelukkig uitstapje naar LG maakt Google weer gebruik van een AMOLED-paneel van Samsung voor de Pixel 3 en Pixel 3 XL. Een strategie die zo z’n vruchten afwerpt want het paneel scoort meteen hoge ogen; de Pixel 3 XL heeft volgens DisplayMate het beste telefoonscherm ooit.

Samsung maakt naast telefoons ook AMOLED-panelen. Die vinden we uiteraard terug in haar eigen telefoons maar ook in sommige andere telefoons, waaronder dus in die van de Google Pixel 3 en Pixel 3 XL. Google deed dat al voor de eerste Pixels maar stapte voor de Pixel 2 over op panelen van LG. Een pijnlijk uitstapje want het paneel ontving stevige kritiek met name om de slechte kijkhoeken en de kleurweergave. Google heeft zich die kritiek aangetrokken maakt nu weer van Samsung schermen gebruik, zo blijkt uit een teardown van iFixit.

Samsung-scherm in Google Pixel 3 XL

Volgens de bevindingen van iFixit maakt Google nogal veel van lijm gebruik om het scherm op z’n plek te houden, het vervangen zal dus de nodige tijd kosten. Dat Google toch weer voor een Samsung-paneel gekozen heeft komt toch als een verrassing, tijdens de introductie liet Google er niets over los. Wel dat het was overgestapt van een P-OLED naar een Flexible OLED-paneel maar dat lijkt meer een andere benaming voor vrijwel hetzelfde product. De testers van DisplayMate waarderen de scherpte, lage reflectie en hoge kleurechtheid. Bovendien zou het scherm afleesbaar zijn in portrait en landscape met een gepolariseerde zonnebril, iets wat met vele LCD-schermen niet lukt. Google brengt de Pixel 3 hier officieel niet uit maar ze zijn ondanks dat toch verkrijgbaar via grijze import.

Ontvang een e-mail wanneer de Pixel 3 XL verkrijgbaar is

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How to View Folder Sizes on Your Mac Using Finder

When you use Finder’s List view to work with files on your Mac, a glance at the Size column tells you the size of each file, but when it comes to folders in the list, Finder just shows a couple of dashes instead.

Finder skips showing folder sizes because calculating them takes time – if several folders contained thousands of files, working out the total size would likely slow down your Mac. So while omitting this information can get annoying, it does ensure file browsing in Finder stays snappy.

But what if you want to use List view and still keep an eye on the size of a handful of folders in a specific location – in Documents, for instance, or in a directory synced to a cloud storage service? It might not be obvious, but thankfully it is possible to make Finder calculate folder size when navigating items as a list.

To do so, open the folder in question, select View -> Show View Options from the menu bar or press the keys Command-J, and check Calculate All Sizes. Finder will now remember your viewing preference for that particular location only.

If you’re looking for a more global solution for keeping tabs on folder sizes that will work in any Finder view mode, you might consider enabling the Preview panel. To do this, open a Finder window and select the menu bar option View -> Show Preview, or press the keys Shift-Command-P.

In the Preview panel, the size of the selected folder always appears immediately below the folder name. If this is the only folder information you want to see in the Preview panel, you can select the menu bar option View -> Show Preview Options and uncheck all other metadata options.

To be honest though, relying on the Preview panel to keep a check on individual folder sizes isn’t a great use of Finder window space. This is where the menu bar option File -> Get Info (or key combo Command-I) can come in helpful. Opening a separate Get Info panel lets you see the size of the item in question, regardless of whether it’s a file or a folder.

The only problem with a Get Info panel is that it only relates to the item you originally selected it for, and every new panel that you open for each additional selected item will hang around on your desktop until you close it manually.

Fortunately, this inconvenience can be easily solved: Click File in the menu bar and hold the Option key, and Get Info will turn into Show Inspector. Unlike a Get Info panel, the Inspector panel is dynamically updated and will always display information for the active Finder window’s currently selected file or folder – including, of course, its size.

Related Roundup: macOS Mojave
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Google Maps Can Now Help Users Find Electric Vehicle Charging Stations

Google has announced it is introducing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to its Maps coverage, allowing EV drivers to see on the map where they can stop to recharge during their journeys.

Searching in Google Maps for keywords like “ev charging” or “EV charging stations” will display the nearest supported stations, including information on the types of ports available, charging speeds, and how many ports there are. However, there’s currently nothing to tell you how many ports are currently occupied at a given station.

Typical location information is also provided for EV stations, so you can check out user-posted photos, ratings, reviews, and questions. Businesses that have charging stations will also feature links to information about the chargers.

The types of charging stations Google Maps supports around the world:

• Global: Tesla, Chargepoint
• US: SemaConnect, EVgo, Blink
• UK: Chargemaster, Pod Point
• AU & NZ: Chargefox

Google says the ability to search for electric vehicle charging stations is rolling out now on Android and iOS devices after users have updated the Maps app, with desktop support launching in the coming weeks.

Google Maps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Google Maps
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YouTube is back after crashing for users around the world

YouTube went down for a little more than an hour on October 16, a rare outage for the Google-owned company.

The video-streaming site, which has nearly 2 billion monthly active users, began suffering issues globally at around 9 p.m. E.T. on Tuesday.

During this time, the website and apps weren’t fully accessible. On desktop, for example, the site showed parts of the homepage together with a string of incomprehensible text and a statement saying its engineers are dealing with the issue.

Click through to a YouTube video from a working website and users were met with a message that read: “An error occurred, please try again later,” or “Sorry, that video does not exit. Sorry about that.” The issue affected YouTube Music and other YouTube platforms.

About an hour after the problems began, YouTube posted a message on Twitter acknowledging the issue and apologizing to its users for the blackout: “Thanks for your reports about YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music access issues. We’re working on resolving this and will let you know once fixed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and will keep you updated.”

The company has since issued a statement saying YouTube is back. We can confirm it’s working normally for us on desktop and mobile. What’s missing is an explanation for what exactly happened to cause the outage.

We're back! Thanks for all of your patience. If you continue to experience issues, please let us know. https://t.co/NVU5GP7Sy6

— Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 17, 2018

The problem came just hours after Twitter started sending out nonsensical notifications to many of its users, though that’s now been sorted out. Indeed, Twitter was the very place where YouTube fans headed to sound off about the outage.

They better hurry and fix this #YouTube pic.twitter.com/sO0o1LDrtu

— Jelan Abrams (@JelanAbrams) October 17, 2018

@YouTubeTV great job Google. Opening night of the NBA and your TV service goes down. Call center is closed! #goodjob #YouTube #celtics

— Rik Morton (@RikMoto) October 17, 2018

You gotta be kinding me YouTube is down like come on@YouTube #YouTubeDOWN #youtube pic.twitter.com/xD1HUD5I4l

— nolimitc0dy__ (@jarrodsav__) October 17, 2018

back to having no social life ????????

— ♕ a'lysse ♕ (@alyssetho) October 17, 2018

YouTube has suffered few outages as serious as this one in its 13-year history. We’ve reached out to YouTube and Google for a comment on what’s going on, and will let you know if they get back.

This story will be updated as it develops.

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It’s not just you — YouTube TV is down

Yes, again.

If you’re thinking to yourself “Ya know, you guys never mention the 99.9 percent of the time that YouTube TV is working just fine …” Well, you’re right. We don’t. But this isn’t one of those times and so we’re going to mention (again) that YouTube TV (and YouTube proper, along with YouTube Music, apparently) is struggling a bit this evening.

That in and of itself is not the end of the world. On the other hand, the end of the world will likely not cost us $40 a month. (Or cost us anything at all, for that matter. Or at least not for very long.) The point is, YouTube TV is down. It is not working. It is an ex-TV.

Thanks for your reports about YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music access issues. We’re working on resolving this and will let you know once fixed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and will keep you updated.

— Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 17, 2018

Last time this happened — in the middle of the damned World Cup semifinals — we got a week of credit for our troubles. This time? We’ll see.

So no YouTube TV for you this evening. Maybe it’s a good time to call your mother instead.

Drop everything and watch Boston Dynamics’ robo-dog dance to ‘Uptown Funk’

After a few years of Earthbound training, Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini robot dog is ready to take on Mars. Bruno Mars, to be precise. If that doesn’t make too much sense to you, it will after you’ve checked out the company’s latest video — in which everyone’s favorite future Skynet pet grooves to Mars and collaborator Mark Ronson’s 2014 toe-tapping hit, “Uptown Funk.” The results are the most cheerful reminder of the impending rise of the machines we’ve seen in ages!

There’s not a whole lot of information that accompanies the video, which is charmingly titled “Uptown Spot.” However, it’s a pretty neat demonstration of SpotMini’s naturalistic movement. We also get a glimpse of its impressive agility, including moments in which it changes direction while jumping, and a rendition of the “running man” dance moves (running dog?) that would surely impress even Janet Jackson herself. You can check out more about Boston Dynamics’ dog robots’ journey from mere cyber-pups to canine superstars here.

This isn’t the only attention-grabbing video Boston Dynamics has released as of late. Last week, it debuted a video showcasing Spot’s humanoid sibling Atlas pulling off some impressive parkour moves in the gym. That video demonstrated an even more dazzling level of acrobatics and robo-athleticism, although it apparently took more than 20 attempts to nail the routine for the demo.

We imagine that this latest Spot video, which has already clocked up half a million views within a few hours, may be an effort to drum up publicity on the part of Boston Dynamics. While the SoftBank-owned robotics firm has never exactly found it difficult to get press attention, there’s now an added incentive: the company will start selling its SpotMini robot in 2019. This will mark the first time in 26 years that one of Boston Dynamics’ showcase robots will be available for purchase. No price has yet been announced, but the latest SpotMini prototype is reportedly 10x cheaper to build than its predecessor — which hopefully bodes well for our wallets.

You’ll probably have to pay extra for your own Spotify or Apple Music subscription, though. Unless you want Spot dancing in eerie silence, that is!

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These gloves will make virtual reality feel even more immersive

Virtual reality can be a truly immersive experience, but a touch of an object in the virtual world doesn’t quite equate to a physical touch you would expect in real life. That is exactly what scientists from EPFL and ETH Zurich have worked to address with newly developed thin and light VR gloves.

Called Dextres, the glove comes in at less than 8 grams per finger and allows for haptic feedback an “unparalleled” freedom of movement when touching objects in the virtual world. The glove is also 2mm thick and is currently powered by a thin electrical cable, but the system is low voltage and scientists developing the project are working to use a very small battery instead.

Designed of a nylon material, the glove features thin elastic metal strips over the fingers. Those strips are separated by a thin insulator, which can react whenever contact is made with a virtual object. As part of the reaction, an onboard controller applies a shock to the metal strips, which causes them to stick together. That, in turn, creates a braking force which then blocks the movement of the fingers, signaling that a virtual object is being held. Once the virtual object is dropped, the voltage is then again removed to allow movements once again.

“The human sensory system is highly developed and highly complex. We have many different kinds of receptors at a very high density in the joints of our fingers and embedded in the skin. As a result, rendering realistic feedback when interacting with virtual objects is a very demanding problem and is currently unsolved. Our work goes one step in this direction, focusing particularly on kinesthetic feedback,” Otmar Hilliges, head of the Advanced Interactive Technologies Lab at ETH Zurich, said in a statement.

The Dextres glove improves on current VR gloves by removing a bulky exoskeleton, pumps, and thick cables. It is a step in the right direction and researchers are looking to scale up the glove and bring it to other parts of the body using conductive fabric. Though just a concept for now, the technology definitely looks promising for gamers and the augmented reality field. It might even be something that NASA can use in training.

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