LG Display to Supply Apple With 400,000 OLED iPhone Panels By End of Year

Apple has contracted LG Display to begin production of OLED panels for iPhones. According to ETNews, the display panels will be produced at LG’s E6 production line in Paju, with shipping to begin next month.

LG will supply approximately 400,000 OLED panels to Apple before the end of the year, with the cost of each unit expected to be around $90.

In September it was reported that LG’s sixth-generation flexible OLED display panels passed a series of Apple’s quality tests, which led to the preparation phase for mass production.

In April, a report claimed that Samsung would likely remain Apple’s exclusive supplier of OLED display panels for its latest phones, after LG fell behind schedule due to mass production challenges.

However it looks like LG has cemented its position as Apple’s secondary supplier of OLED panels. Korean newspaper Newspin reported about a potential deal signed between Apple and LG back in July.

Apple in September launched the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max with 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch OLED displays, respectively. Last month it launched the more affordable iPhone XR, but that phone has a 6.1-inch LCD “Liquid Retina” display.

Apple can potentially negotiate lower prices for OLED panels as Samsung and LG compete for its business, which should in turn lower its production costs of OLED-equipped iPhones.

Related Roundup: iPhone XSTags: etnews.co.kr, LG, OLED, LG DisplayBuyer’s Guide: iPhone XS (Buy Now)
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Apple Highlights 2018 MacBook Air and Mac Mini Reviews

Reviews for the new 2018 MacBook Air and Mac mini went live this morning ahead of tomorrow’s launch, and in a press release, Apple this afternoon highlighted reviews from several media sites that were able to spend some time with the new machines.

Apple shared review passages from sites that include CNBC, WIRED, Daring Fireball, PC Mag, Six Colors, Tom’s Guide, and more.

Daring Fireball, for example, called the MacBook Air the MacBook that “most people should buy,” and the Daily Express said “fans of this laptop” will love the new update because “it takes the concept of power and ultimate portability to a whole new level.”

Gear Patrol said the MacBook Air is the “perfect computer” for anyone looking to do “normal things” like web browsing, answering emails, and watching movies, while Refinery29 highlighted the MacBook Air’s 12-hour battery life.

As for the Mac mini, Six Colors said that the new update allows it to fill a wide range of needs, from basic server needs to “high-end applications that require a great deal of processor power.”

Tom’s Guide said that the Mac mini is the best option for those who want a compact Mac desktop for streaming media or getting into Apple computing, and ZDNet said the new version is “designed for all types of users” and is “no longer serving a niche market.”

As with prior reviews roundups for devices like the iPad Pro, Apple has only highlighted the positive elements from each review. For anyone considering a purchase of one of these machines, it’s worth taking a deeper dive into the reviews to get a full picture of both the positives and the negatives.

Apple’s full list of Mac mini and MacBook Air review selections can be seen in the article shared through the Apple Newsroom, while additional reviews can be found in our Mac mini and MacBook Air review roundups.

The new 2018 MacBook Air and Mac mini models officially launch tomorrow and base configurations will be available in Apple retail stores and from third-party retailers.

The first pre-orders for the machines are also set to be delivered on November 7 and have already started arriving in Australia and New Zealand.

Related Roundups: Mac mini, MacBook AirBuyer’s Guide: Mac Mini (Buy Now), MacBook Air (Buy Now)
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How to watch the Samsung Developer Conference 2018 keynote

While the Samsung Developer Conference may not be as consumer-focused as the likes of Apple’s WWDC or Google I/O, this year could be a little different. Rumors have been circulating for months that Samsung could tease its upcoming foldable smartphone, set to be the company’s most innovative release in years. Skepticism certainly abounds surrounding the very concept of the foldable smartphone — but if it does take off, Samsung’s announcement could be the biggest thing to happen to smartphones since the launch of the iPhone in 2007.

Of course, you might be interested in checking out the announcement for yourself — and thankfully, there are a few ways to do so. Here’s everything you need to know about watching the Samsung Developer Conference 2018 keynote at 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday, November 7 (the event continues on Thursday, November 8).

Watch the SDC keynote on YouTube

Perhaps the easiest and most convenient way to watch the Samsung Developer Conference keynote is through YouTube. Samsung is only streaming the keynote the first day of the Samsung Developer Conference, so if you want t0 watch the entire second-day keynote, you’ll need to do it somewhere else. The company is, however, streaming a so-called “Day 2 Spotlight” on YouTube.

Stream Day 1 SDC keynote on YouTube here

Stream Day 2 SDC Spotlight session on YouTube here

Watch the SDC keynote on Facebook

Perhaps you’d prefer to watch the keynote on Facebook. If so, Samsung is streaming the keynotes for both day 1 and day 2 of the developer conference on Facebook. You can check out the streams for the Samsung Developer Conference using the links below.

Stream Day 1 SDC keynote on Facebook here

Stream Day 2 SDC keynote on Facebook here

Watch the SDC keynote on Livestream

Prefer to steer clear from the Facebook and Google overlords? You’re in luck — Samsung is streaming the event on Livestream too. It’s currently unclear if Samsung is streaming the day 1 keynote only or both days on Livestream.

Stream Day 1 SDC keynote on Livestream here

Stay tuned

Whether you tune in to the Samsung Developer Conference keynotes or not, we’ll be covering all the most important announcements — including any information we get about Samsung’s upcoming foldable phone. Keep an eye on this post for any news related to the Samsung foldable phone.

Editors’ Recommendations

• How to watch Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked August 2018 event
• Samsung Galaxy Watch: Everything you need to know
• Samsung’s going to up its (Galaxy) A game on October 11
• Not to be outdone, Samsung says it’s making a laptop with a foldable display
• Samsung Galaxy S10: Here’s everything we know

It’s time to annoy your friends again with Candy Crush Friends Saga (Review)

Depending on which side of the story you are, Candy Crush is either a franchise you really like, or hate with a passion. People who like it keeps coming back for its huge amount of content, colorful visual style, and addictive nature. People who hate it either doesn’t like the microtransaction aspect of it, are fed up with Facebook invitations to play the game, or can’t stand King as a company.

It really doesn’t matter which side you fall into, Candy Crush Friends Saga will not make you change your mind. Either you will still love them, or you will find that it adds almost nothing new to its past games.

Developer: King
Price: Free

Overview

Have you played previous Candy Crush games? If you have, then this game is basically the same you are already used to, and, as previously said, there is very little new content to be seen compared to other entries in the franchise.

If you haven’t, then the gameplay is massively simple. You get a board full of candies of different colors in random order, and your job is to combine them in a way that lets you complete the goal the game requests of you. The most basic combination consists of three candies, which make them disappear.

However, there are more combinations, like four, five, L-shaped, and square-shaped, that not only makes them disappear, but also yield additional, more powerful candy. These special treats have a big range of effects, such as clearing whole rows, exploding in order to clear neighboring candy, destroying all candies of the same color across the board, and similar.

You also have a certain number of turns to complete the goal. In case you fail to do so, you lose a life. At first, the game is very easy, and there is no need to worry about lives. However, the game becomes more difficult as you progress through it. Because of the randomness of it, some levels might prove more difficult than they should. You can easily struggle to get even close to the goal the game asks on your first playthrough, and then get a lucky order of candies and clear it without issues.

Setup and Tutorial

On the main screen, you will notice two buttons: one says “Play,” and the other says “Save your progress,” accompanied by a Facebook logo. One would think that either you play the game and lose the progress you have made each time you close it, or you have to log in to Facebook in order to save your progress. However, both of these are wrong.

In case you decide to not press the button, you will be able to play just fine. Your progress will be saved without issues. However, if you need to save your progress across devices, then this option is necessary.

On the other hand, if you do press the button, you will see that Facebook is not the only option to log in. There’s also an option for a King account. So Facebook might not be needed at all. Frankly, I didn’t test it because this arrangement does not inspire confidence. After all, one of the two buttons at the first screen you see when launching the game is massively misleading, and says a lot about the tactics that King applies to its games.

Anyways, the game teaches you the basics across several different levels. It actually does a pretty good job at it. Sure, the mechanics are easy, but there are several things you should remember around the combinations that you can make in order to get more powerful candy. Even if you don’t remember them all at first, the game highlights which movement is best in order to get the most powerful combination available on the board.

Candy Crushing

In order to keep things more interesting compared to the regular Candy Crush Saga, developer King has added several different goals for completing a game in Friends. While the original one mostly depended on getting to a certain score or clearing a certain amount of blocks, Friends mostly asks you to “free” animals which are hidden behind candy or trapped inside them. In order to do so, you need to combine candy contiguous to these blocks.

However, some of them have several layers, making it more complicated than it sounds. Even though sometimes it would seem better to go for another combination that would yield powerful candy, sometimes you have to prefer combining a smaller amount of candy in order to reach the goal.

Just as with other games, you have a set amount of lives, and failing to complete the goal means game over for you. Run out of lives, though, and it means you cannot play the game anymore. If you have played other Candy Crush games before, then you know the drill. The easiest way of getting more lives is to ask your friends to send you some. This kind of spam on Facebook is one of the reasons Candy Crush is such a polarizing game. Either you are addicted enough that you don’t care about the spam in order to get lives, or you cannot stand how intrusive this practice is.

With a little help from my friends

For this game, King has added a big differentiating factor, and that is the inclusion of Friends. These are characters that are there to help you complete a level. There are a lot of characters you can collect, all with different abilities.

For example, early characters transform regular candy into more useful candy, while others deal additional damage to blocks that are harder to break. The general objective of them is to make the game easier for you. They can also wear different outfits, all of which you get playing through the game.

For some reason, there are some levels in which you cannot use some characters. Also, the game “recommends” you to use one character depending on the level, although for sure you could clear the level using whichever character you wanted.

Microtransactions

As this game is completely free to download, King then makes money through microtransactions. The game’s primary currency is gold bars, which lets you buy additional lives and items to use in the games. You can also use them to buy additional turns in case you run out of them but feel like you are very close to the goal.

Candy Crush Friends Saga also offers some packs in which you are supposed to get more of your money’s worth. With these, you don’t only get bars but additional items to make the game easier. These can be as cheap as $4 or as expensive as $260.

Compared to other games that employ this freemium model, I find Candy Crush Friend’s microtransactions to be massively expensive. For example, getting all lives back costs 9 gold bars, while buying 12 bars (because of course they don’t sell 9 only) costs $4. If you are impatient and want to play right away, that’s $3 you would have to put down to play again. You can also wait until the lives regenerate (which takes time), or you can spam your friends.

I have also noticed that ads get worse and worse the more you progress, and I know for sure that ads can get very annoying on later levels of the regular Candy Crush Saga. Knowing King, I would expect it to be the same for Friends.

Graphics and sound

Candy Crush games have a visual style that has been associated to the game since its beginnings. Friends is no different, sporting the same colorful design with very saturated colors. Everything, especially candies, seem to pop out of the screen. The visual effects are very flashy, using a lot of bright animations.

For this offering, the friend you use to complete the level appears at the beginning performing some kind of animation. Also, it appears dancing at the end while something called Sugar Crush happens (basically getting additional points at random for free). Frankly, neither does anything for the game, even becoming annoying as you complete more levels and have to sit through the same animations every single time you play a level. At least, it closely adheres to the extravagant nature of this game.

Music and sound effects are also what you would expect from the franchise. Each visual effect has its corresponding sound effect to go with it, and there is not a single interaction that doesn’t have a sound built in. Unlike the previously mentioned character animations, the sound part of the game does not get old as quickly, and, if you do get fed up, you can turn them off in the settings.

It is important to note that even in my Samsung Galaxy S8, the performance was not what I would expect. There were plenty of dropped frames and overall sluggishness. It wasn’t that bad, but I am using a more than respectable phone that hasn’t struggled with almost anything I’ve thrown at it. That makes me worry about the performance of it on middle and low-range devices.

Conclusion

Candy Crush Friends Saga builds on the solid foundations of its predecessors and offers a game with the same mechanics, gameplay, art style, and practices. It does add new elements in the form of Friends, but, other than that, this is another Candy Crush game that does little for the franchise and the genre in general in terms of originality. Think about it like the annual titles that EA does for FIFA and Madden. There are a couple of new things, but the game is vastly unchanged from previous offerings.

Nevertheless, the amount of content is huge, as with these games in general. If you like the previous games and want more, then this is a no-brainer, since it provides the same content that you already love. If you are looking for something different to the other games in the franchise, then sadly you will have to keep waiting and look elsewhere.

Download and install Candy Crush Friends Saga from the Google Play Store.

Hands-on with the world’s first foldable smartphone

Hype surrounding flexible displays has been growing steadily for years now. Despite their ability to enable unprecedented form factors like foldable smartphones, flexible displays have long been nothing more than something to show off at electronics shows. However, that’s about to change.

Samsung is gearing up to reveal its first foldable device later this week, with LG and Huawei set to follow in 2019. While everyone was expecting Samsung would get the “world’s first” bragging rights, that honor went to a tiny company not many people may have heard of. I recently went hands-on with the Royole FlexPai, the world’s first foldable smartphone. Here are my thoughts.

Thoughts on the foldable display

In its extended position, the FlexPai is more similar to a tablet than a smartphone. It features a 7.8-inch 1440p AMOLED display. The display itself is bright and offers saturated colors; I didn’t notice any difference in quality compared to standard AMOLED panels in traditional smartphones on the market today.

As you may have noticed, the display is sized at a 4:3 aspect ratio, presumably so the device can better function like a traditional phone when folded.

Related

Flexible OLED displays: A gorgeous waste

MWC 2018 didn’t feature any flexible phones, despite the hype that’s been building for years. However, you might not realize that flexible displays are already here. They could even be on your phone right now, …

The folding mechanism is supported by a hinge composed of over 100 unique components. The hinge seems very sturdy, but obviously the real technical achievement comes in the form of the flexible display. In addition to the underlying flexible display panel, Royole is using a type of flexible plastic material instead of the familiar cover glass.

While the plastic does not feel nearly as premium as glass, it’s probably the best material available for the task. As an added benefit, it effectively makes the FlexPai shatterproof.

Taking the Royole FlexPai from tablet to phone mode is pretty straightforward. It’s just a matter of taking both sides and folding it down the middle. The hinge supports pretty much every angle, so you can fold and use it in any position you wish. Royole claims the FlexPai can be folded at least 200,000 times, which should be enough for several years of normal use.

I couldn’t help but feel nervous when folding and unfolding the FlexPai during my time with it. Even when I placed my hands at the center of each side, the amount of force required to get the device to fold all the way down made me worry that I might break it. This is something that could be addressed with an improved hinge design in the future.

A device for developers

Royole is already taking pre-orders for the FlexPai and will begin shipping units worldwide around the end of this year. In the United States, the FlexPai is priced at $1,318 for the 6GB RAM/128GB storage model and $1,469 for the 8GB RAM/256GB storage model. Those prices may seem high to an everyday consumer, but it’s important to keep in mind that the FlexPai is intended for developers and enthusiasts. That audience will understandably have an easier time justifying the high cost.

Don’t miss: Display showdown: AMOLED vs LCD vs Retina vs Infinity display

See also

Huawei Mate 20 Pro review: The best phone for power users

Let’s get it out of the way. You’ll probably want to buy the Mate 20 Pro. It’s sexy, it’s powerful, it’s one of the best phones you can get right now. The real question is if …

The other device specifications are pretty standard for a high-end device. When it ships, the FlexPai will have Qualcomm’s latest 8-series chipset, dual-SIM and microSD expansion support, dual-cameras, and a 3,800mAh battery. Royole also says that you’ll be able to charge the battery up to 70 percent within thirty minutes — just like the Mate 20 Pro.

Royole will ship a customized version on Android 9.0 with the FlexPai. I went hands-on with a pre-production unit, so the software was extremely buggy when I used the device, For example, the FlexPai’s software didn’t keep up with folds and unfolds well as UI elements would sometimes distort, the screen wouldn’t correctly rotate, and apps would crash… sometimes the entire device, too.

Royole assured me that they were working on the software issues and would have them addressed before the release in six to eight weeks. It’s likely that what they were showing me was somewhat rushed which would explain why the experience left something to be desired.

Why this is still significant

Make no mistake: The Royole FlexPai firmly asserts its position as a first-generation product. The pre-production unit I tested was very impressive, but ultimately felt like a half-baked product. Even if you aren’t going to buy a FlexPai, however, the commercial release of such a product may end up being a major milestone for the tech industry as a whole.

Arguably, the main reason why it’s taken so long for flexible displays to arrive in consumer products is general disinterest in production among suppliers. Therefore, Royole’s major investments in production facilities ($1.2B) in order to make this tech more readily available is admirable. It may be a tiny company, but it’s managed to grab the “first” tag before the larger manufacturers.

All things considered, I think it’s best to treat the Royole FlexPai as a signal to the industry rather than a product you might actually buy as a general consumer. As suppliers compete with each other, we can expect prices to implement this tech to go down and the pace of innovation to go up.

Learn more about the Royole FlexPai

How to install Dolby Atmos ceiling speakers

Dolby Atmos is the latest and greatest surround sound format for the home. If you’re reading this, and you’re currently contemplating installing ceiling speakers, we probably don’t need to tell you much about Atmos — you’re ready to get going, so go ahead and skip to “Are you sure about ceiling speakers?”

For those of you who need the low-down, you can check the links at the left for a comprehensive catch-up.

Are you sure about ceiling speakers?

Before we begin in earnest, let’s just double-check something. Are you sure ceiling speakers are the right choice for your Dolby Atmos home theater setup? Installing ceiling speakers can be tricky. If you’re not careful, you could end up with a messed up ceiling, wires hanging all over the place, a partner who now sees you as the person who ruined their favorite room, and … no Atmos.

Don’t forget, there are other alternatives, like Dolby Atmos soundbars, and Dolby Atmos module speakers that are no more difficult to install than your original 5.1 or 7.1 speakers. Now that we’ve done our due diligence, let’s get at it.

Plan, plan, plan

The key to any successful installation is having a well thought out plan. You may need to deviate from that plan if unexpected things happen, but always start with a plan. In this case, your plan needs to include:

Tools:

• Stud finder
• Pencil
• Tape measure
• Drywall
• Saw
• Screwdriver or power driver
• Fishing tape
• Cable fishing rod

How many speakers do you want?

Some Atmos receivers support up to four “height” (ceiling) speakers, but you can also choose to do just two. If so, you need to decide if they’re going to be placed near the sitting/viewing area, which is optimal, or, near the front/screen. Perhaps you want to install four speakers in case you want to add more later, even though your receiver can only support two? Decide now.

Speaker placement

Dolby Labs has a series of PDF brochures you can use to figure out the best spot for each ceiling speaker, relative to where you’ll be sitting, and to your existing surround speakers. Keep in mind, depending on the location of your ceiling joists, you may have to alter the final placement, but you should know before you start whether or not things like recessed lighting, or HVAC/plumbing bulkheads are going to make this a non-starter.

Your wiring path

How are you going to connect these new ceiling speakers back to the receiver? If you’re fortunate enough to be working with an unfinished ceiling, or your room is below your attic, this will be a lot easier to figure out. If your ceiling is finished, you’ll have to make some educated guesses, with the help of a few tricks we’ll discuss below.

Your comfort level

This might be the most important part of the plan. Are you comfortable taking on all aspects of the job? If you’re installing speakers in a finished ceiling, with finished walls, you’ll be cutting drywall, running wire through cavities that may have obstructions, and using tools like fish tape. There’s a good chance you’ll need to drill holes in wooden obstacles like fire-blocks. If you end up making an “oops,” you may need to do a small drywall repair, then prime and paint.

You don’t need to be a licensed contractor to do this, but if you’re not the patient sort, or don’t think your handiwork will impress, now’s the time to decide where your limits are.

Select your speakers

Before the cutting, wiring (and cursing) begins, you should have all of your materials on-hand. This includes the speakers themselves. Although your ceiling speakers should be an acoustic match for the rest of your home theater speakers, this isn’t critical. You also don’t need to worry about finding a set with a ton of low-end bass: Your subwoofer will take care of that. What you should look for is a model that features wide sound dispersion. As Dave Napoleone of Toronto-based Cloud 9 AV said, “ … the idea is to create a ‘dome’ of sound above you.” Ceiling speakers that are highly directional may not be as effective at this.

How much you spend on these speakers will be a function of your budget as well as your existing gear. If your home theater receiver and/or your amp is a budget model, there’s little to be gained from buying expensive ceiling speakers. If you’ve got high-end equipment, however, you’ll just be cheating yourself by installing cheap speakers.

Size matters

Your ceiling speakers will be anywhere from 6 to 12-inches in diameter, which likely won’t be a problem given that most ceiling joists are 16 inches apart (on center), with a 14-inch gap between them. The height/depth of the speakers, on the other hand, could present a problem. In really old homes, builders used massive wooden joists that are nine inches tall or more. Modern homes will have decidedly less space to play with. Before you settle on a ceiling speaker, make sure your ceiling can accommodate it. Most will only need three to four inches of clearance, but there are some that need eight or nine.

If you’ve got an open attic above your drywall, you’ve got no worries. If you’re working in a finished basement, check to see if there are any unfinished areas where you can look up and see the exposed joists. If all else fails, make a tiny hole in your ceiling, and, using an unfolded wire coat hanger, see how far you can push it into the cavity. Mark the spot on the hanger, and measure once you pull it back out.

Find a spot

Figuring out your final speaker placement will be a combination of following Dolby’s recommendations, and working within the constraints of your ceiling. Your joists will be the biggest obstacle, literally, so you’ll have to figure out where they’re located. Most of the time, a stud finder will do the trick, but be warned: Unlike walls, ceiling drywall is often not in direct contact with the joists.

This creates two challenges. First, a stud sensor won’t always read the changes in material density that tell it a joist is present. Second, the metal straps that do connect directly to the ceiling in this case are very thin, making them unlikely to register either.

Fortunately, there’s a very reliable hack: Get a set of rare earth fridge magnets, and glide one across the surface of the ceiling in a growing spiral pattern, starting at the center of where you want to put a speaker. Go slow, and keep gentle yet constant pressure on the magnet. Eventually, you’ll feel it tug — that’s the head of a drywall screw, and it’s a reliable indicator of the presence of a joist or a metal strap. Leave it in place and do the same thing with a few more magnets. Usually, joists run across the width of house, so you’ll find the next screw by slowly moving across the ceiling in a straight line toward a wall. You should now have a line of magnets that show you where one joist is.

To find the next joist, measure perpendicularly from your magnet line, approximately 16 inches. Start your next magnet sweep here, this time keeping your path parallel to the first line of magnets. If you’re lucky, the drywaller will have put screws in roughly the same spots.

A stack of rare-earth fridge magnets made out of neodymium

Now that you’ve got a good idea where the joists are, confirm your speaker placements. Your speaker hopefully came with a circular template, that will let you trace the precise size of the opening you need to cut. If not, got to the manufacturer’s website and see if there’s one you can download and print, making sure you’re set to “100 percent” ratio for the size.

With some double sided tape, tack the templates to your ceiling. Measuring carefully, double check distances to make sure the templates are placed symmetrically, and in accordance with Dolby’s recommendations (or as close as you can get). You’ll want to give yourself at least an inch or two of breathing room between the template’s edge, and the nearest joist; the speaker needs room for the locking tabs that swing out further than the circle. If you’re too close to a joist, those tabs won’t be able to engage.

Choosing speaker cable

Rather than standard speaker wire, a ceiling installation requires fire-rated in-wall speaker cable, which adds a heavy duty layer of insulation around both wires. Running any kind of wiring through a wall or ceiling can put the wire in contact with splintered wood, exposed metal strapping and other hazards that can damage the protective wrapping of standard speaker cable, causing a short, or worse.

More on Dolby Atmos

Dolby Atmos: All you need to know

The ultimate surround sound guide

Best Dolby Atmos movies

How do you re-create the air-ripping launch of 11,000-hp dragsters? Dolby Atmos

Average home speaker cable comes in 16AWG or 14AWG gauge, which determines the thickness of the two copper wires. The smaller the number, the thicker the wire. “A thicker speaker wire will carry the full frequency and current better,” said Napoleone, “but this is only a factor for long runs or high-power/high-current applications.”

Napoleone uses 16 gauge for most of Cloud9’s installs, saying that “for small in-ceiling speakers, I don’t believe you will hear a difference.” If you’re dealing with a really long cable run, or if you’ve got a premium home theater receiver paired to a set of premium speakers, 14 gauge cable could make sense.

How much cable?

Professional AV installers avoid this question altogether, by using large spools of speaker cable — much more than they could conceivably need. If you don’t mind buying your speaker cable in bulk, this is a good way to go. If not, you’ll have to measure carefully, as you don’t want to run short — splicing speaker cable is not recommended, especially if that splice ends up in the ceiling or wall, where it could get damaged.

If you’re confident that you’ll be able to pass the speaker cable in a direct line from your speaker and receiver — maybe you’ve got open ceilings and walls — measure that distance by running your tape measure as if it were the actual speaker cable. If the cable will need to pass around a bulkhead, your tape measure needs to do the same. Take your final measurement, and add 10 feet. You may not need this extra length, but if you do, you’ll be super happy it’s there. If you don’t have the luxury of an open ceiling, assume the worst, and measure the longest possible route, again adding 10 feet.

Make your holes

Once you’re feeling good about where they’re located, take a pencil and trace the template’s circle, then remove the template. Using a drywall knife, plunge the blade into the middle of the circle, and make a cut out to the perimeter. Try to stay as close to the circle’s line as possible. You can always make the circle bigger, but you can’t make it smaller. Before removing the entire piece of drywall, you may want to remove one quarter — this should be enough to stick your hand, or your coat hanger, into the cavity to double check that you haven’t accidentally ended up too close to a joist or other obstacle. If everything’s good, finish your cut. If you run into a metal strap, you’ll have to cut this too, using a small hacksaw. If you hit a joist, you’ll have to reposition your template and begin a new hole. A drywall repair is way easier than trying to cut away part of a joist — not to mention it weakens the joist!

Grab one of your speakers (without the grille), and try it out for size by lifting it into the hole. It should slide in with little or no resistance, and you shouldn’t have any visible gaps between the edge of your hole and the leading edge of the speaker. If it won’t go in all the way, gradually enlarge the hole by running the drywall knife along the perimeter, removing small amounts of material as you go. It’s important to do this evenly. Eventually, your speaker should fit perfectly.

Run those cables

Before you begin fishing cable through, mark each cable according to the speaker it will be connected to (e.g., “Atmos Right,” or “Ceiling Right”). If possible, write on the actual cable itself, instead of using an adhesive label, which could get ripped off when you run the cable.

Because there are almost as many installation techniques as there are home theaters, we can’t offer you step-by-step instructions for your specific room.

What we can do is point you to some excellent resources on the web, that cover a wide variety of room types, and installation techniques.

Wayne Pflughaupt over at Home Theater Shack, has assembled a five-part guide to in-wall wiring that’s as useful for general wiring as it is for speaker cables. He covers several scenarios, including open-attic ceilings, drilling through fire blocks and top plates, and has some excellent tips for the first-timer, like how to use a pull-chain and a magnet to make your life way easier.

As good as Wayne’s guide is, it doesn’t have any video. Sometimes you just need to see exactly how this stuff is done. Here are a few helpful videos, including How To Fish Cables Through The Wall, a ceiling speaker install walk-through, a video using an ingenious tool called a Magnepull, and how to deal with tricky insulated walls, and walls with fire blocks.

We’re also going to discuss two specific tools that we think are essential to running cable in walls and ceilings: Fish tape, and a fishing rod.

Fish tape

Fish tape is a flexible, but very strong spool of spring steel. It’s perfect for pulling cables through conduits, or walls, or any other location that is fully enclosed, but with few or no obstacles. It’s rigid enough that you can guide it simply by pushing it, yet flexible enough to get around gentle bends or very narrow openings. As long as nothing blocks its path, you can push a fish tape very long distances. To use fish tape, you start from your destination.

For instance, if you’re running cable from the top of a wall to the bottom of a wall, you insert the fish tape at the bottom of the wall and run it up, so that the end of the fish tape emerges at the top. Once you’ve got some length exposed, securely attach your cable to the end of the fish tape with electrical tape.

Start by wrapping the tape around the fish tape, and then around the cable too, so that you’ve created a sock of tape around the end of the cable — this will prevent it from snagging on the drywall or any other objects. Wrap the tape as tightly as possible; you want the cable securely connected to the fish tape, but you also want to minimize the thickness created by the cable.

Once secured, gently guide the cable an inch or two back into the hole at the top of the wall, until the taped portion is no longer visible. Now you can return to the bottom of the wall and start pulling the fish tape out. Make sure there is nothing preventing your cable from freely feeding into the top hole; you may want to ask someone to help with that task. If you encounter anything more than gentle resistance while pulling, stop. Push the fish tape back a few inches and try again. You may need to do this several times, and combine it with a twisting motion. Be patient, and don’t give up — if the fish tape made the first journey, it should be able to make it back.

Cable fishing rod

A few different cable fishing rods

Cable fishing rods are actually quite similar to regular fishing rods, in that they’re designed to be straight, rigid poles, that have enough flex that you can guide them from an angle. They come in a variety of lengths, and you can usually connect multiple rods to achieve virtually any total length. Most offer a few screw-on accessories like hooks and eyes. Unlike fish tape, which will naturally curl, a fishing rod stays straight. When running cable through a ceiling, you need to stay above hazards like recessed lighting, and drywall strapping. A fish tape spool makes this very difficult as gravity will constantly pull the tape down, usually right into the obstacles you want to avoid. A fishing rod can be guided to the very top of your ceiling cavity, and as long as you maintain upward pressure on the rod, it will stay there, easily clearing the objects closer to the drywall. For enclosed ceilings, a fishing rod is a must.

Another benefit to a cable fishing rod is you can push as well as pull the cable. You’ll need to decide based on your specific circumstances which technique will work best but here’s a helpful tip: If you decide to push your cable through a cavity and you get stuck, you’ll probably need to pull back on the rod. If there’s any slack on the cable, it could get looped around an obstacle making it impossible to retrieve. We suggest spinning the rod as you push, causing the cable to wrap tightly around it, keeping slack to a minimum.

Installing the speakers

Assuming everything worked out with your cable runs, this is the easy part. Strip the ends of your two copper wires by ¾ of an inch. For each wire, twist the copper strands until they form a tight, single bunch. Making sure you respect the positive and negative wires, connect them to the appropriate terminals on the speaker. Some speaker wires are red and black, while others can be white and black. Always connect the black wire to the negative terminal, so that you don’t get confused on either the speaker or receiver ends.

Gently lift the speaker into the hole, while taking care to keep your excess speaker wire from sitting on top of the speaker housing — this could cause unwanted vibrations. Using a screwdriver, slowly turn the screws for the locking tabs. You’ll hear a click as the tabs swing out from their home position and begin to descend their guide rails. Keep turning until you encounter resistance, and repeat for all four tabs. For your last step, apply some very gentle pressure to each tab screw to make sure the tab is well seated against the drywall. Do not over-tighten these tabs… there’s no need to do so, and if you accidentally snap them they’ll be useless.

Grab your speaker grille and, depending on the kind, either snap it into place or let the built-in magnets do the work for you. Congrats, you’re all done!

Configuring your system

Don’t forget, now that you’ve installed and connected your new Atmos height speakers, you’ll need to tell your home theater receiver that they’re there. Using the settings menu, find the appropriate section for speaker configuration, and follow the on-screen instructions. You may need to repeat the automatic leveling procedure if your receiver came equipped with a room mic. If your receiver lets you set crossover frequencies for each channel, you’ll want to make sure the new Atmos speakers are set according to the manufacturer’s suggestions.

Add the Atmos

Of course, the final step is auditioning your new Atmos speakers with a really good Atmos-enabled movie. You’ll need an Ultra-HD Blu-ray player for this, and a selection of the best Atmos movies. Now, let it rip!

Editors’ Recommendations

• Samsung HW-N950 soundbar review
• The best Dolby Atmos movies, from ‘Ready Player One’ to the new ‘Jumanji’ movie
• The best A/V receivers of 2018
• Vizio is bringing Dolby Atmos to your living room without any setup headaches
• Lenovo Yoga C930 Review

Amazon one-day sale cuts up to 50 percent off Logitech mice, other accessories

Amazon might already be holding a set of early Black Friday deals, but it also is currently running a sale on Logitech accessories. For today only, you can save on popular mice, keyboards, speakers, and other gadgets that pair up nicely with your PC.

One of the leading deals in the Amazon sale includes a 54-percent savings on the Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum RGB Tunable Gaming Mouse. The highly popular mouse is now two years old, but the sale cuts the initial price of $85 to a modest $39. For that price, it features one of Logitech’s most accurate and responsive optical sensors, tunable weight and balance, and RGB customizable lighting.

Also part of the sale is the Logitech MX Master Wireless Mouse, which is currently 40 percent off at $60 instead of $100. The easy-to-use mouse features a unique thumb wheel for horizontal navigation and advanced gestures, and it can be used seamlessly with up to three Windows 10 PCs with the touch of a button. It also tracks on any surface and can hold 40 days of power on a single charge, with no downtime while recharging.

Elsewhere, sales also include 61 percent off a Logitech HD 310 webcam, 51 percent off the MK750 wireless solar keyboard, and 50 percent off the Z506 surround sound home theater speaker system. Respectively, these accessories come in at $19, $45, and $50 in price, down from $50, $100, and $100.

Another interesting deal offers 55-percent savings on the Logitech K400 Plus Wireless Keyboard, which includes a mini touchpad on board. Now priced at $18 instead of $40, it is the ideal solution for media centers and other devices where space might be tight.

The holiday shopping season is now just a few weeks away, and there are plenty of savings to enjoy across the web. Amazon recently changed its shipping policies to allow everyone to receive items for free across the website, and Target and Walmart have similar promotions.

Target is offering sales on the Xbox and other gaming systems for the holidays, and Best Buy is also likely to hold similar sales.  Looking for more information about the best deals? Find more from our Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals pages.

We strive to help our readers find the best deals on quality products and services, and choose what we cover carefully and independently. If you find a better price for a product listed here, or want to suggest one of your own, email us at dealsteam@digitaltrends.com.Digital Trends may earn commission on products purchased through our links, which supports the work we do for our readers.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Cyber Monday 2018: When it takes place and where to find the best deals
• The best Black Friday stores compared: Amazon, Walmart, and more
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Cigar-shaped comet may actually be an alien probe, scientists suggest

An artist’s rendition of the first interstellar comet, Oumuamua, which some scientists now think may be an alien probe.

Last November, astronomers detected an outer-space object unlike anything detected before. The visitor, dubbed Oumuamua (pronounced “oh-MOO-ah-MOO-ah”), arrived from interstellar space, beyond the bubble-like region that demarcates the sun’s domain. Its unusual origin story wasn’t the only thing that set Oumuamua apart from other comets and asteroids — it was also strange in shape; highly elongated, like a cosmic cigar.

Well, this week, the story of Oumuamua got a little bit weirder. According to researchers from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the outer-space object may not be an comet after all. In a paper set to be published next week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astrophysicists Avi Loeb and Shmuel Bilay claim Oumuamua could be, “a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.”

Yes, really.

“Oumuamua deviates from a trajectory that is solely dictated by the Sun’s gravity,” Loeb tells Digital Trends. “This could have been the result of cometary outgassing, but there is no evidence for a cometary tail around it. Moreover, comets change the period of their spin and no such change was detected for Oumuamua. The excess acceleration of Oumuamua was detected at multiple times, ruling out an impulsive kick due to a break up of the object. The only other explanation that comes to mind is the extra force exerted on Oumuamua by sunlight. In order for it to be effective, Oumuamua needs to be less than a millimeter in thickness, like a sail. This led us to suggest that it may be a light-sail produced by an alien civilization.”

“I welcome other proposals,” Loeb added, “but I cannot think of another explanation for the peculiar acceleration of Oumuamua.”

Let’s break this down. Loeb is saying that the Oumuamua doesn’t exhibit the type of characteristics seen in other comets and asteroids. Not only is it the first-ever interstellar asteroid or comet detected by astronomers while passing through the solar system, its shape is strange, its acceleration is unexpected, and a cometary tail — the signature trail of particles seen behind shooting stars — is conspicuous in its absence.

The light-sail Loeb thinks may power Oumuamua is not unlike technology being developed currently here on Earth. In fact, Loeb is an adviser on Breakthrough Starshot, an ambitious mission to develop and deploy this technology. So, if the idea seems far-fetched, it’s not unthinkable.

If nothing else, Loeb hopes this story serves as a vehicle to make the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Institute (SETI) more mainstream through evidence-based science.

“Looking ahead, we should search for other interstellar objects in the sky,” Loeb said. “Such a search would resemble my favorite activity with my daughters when we vacation on a beach, namely, examining shells swept ashore from the ocean. Not all shells are the same, and similarly only a fraction of the interstellar objects might be technological debris of alien civilizations. But we should examine anything that enters the solar system from interstellar space in order to infer the true nature of Oumuamua or other objects of its mysterious population.”

Editors’ Recommendations

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• Artificial intelligence discovers dozens of mysterious cosmic signals
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• Sun sets on NASA’s Dawn spacecraft after 11 years of studying asteroid belt

Dell Ultrasharp 49 vs. Samsung CHG90

If you’re the kind of person who looks at the best ultrawide monitors in the world and says, “I still need something wider,” there are some monitors out there for you. Two of the best come from Dell and Samsung, offering 49-inches of display a piece in a ludicrously broad form factor.

In a battle for the best of the ultra, ultrawides, we pitted the Dell Ultrasharp 49 versus the Samsung CHG90 to see which makes the best use of its 49 inches of screen real estate.

Frame design

Riley Young/Digital Trends

While image quality is paramount, the overall look, feel, and customizability of the frame the monitor is attached to is important too. Both monitors offer good-looking solutions in that regard, but their footprint and design are drastically different.

The Samsung CHG90 has a stand that, although trim, is almost as large as the monitor itself. It gives the frame some minor tilt and swivel control, though since this is a curved display, you’re going to want to sit right in front of it if you can, to take full advantage of its wraparound effect.

The overall design weighs in at 33 pounds with the stand, so is not the most maneuverable of monitors, but its size is by far the biggest determining factor there.

The Ultrasharp has a much thinner, but deeper stand. It leaves much more desk space underneath the display itself and offers a greater range of motion for the monitor that sits atop it. You can tilt the display through 21 degrees and swivel it almost entirely around. We would caution doing so too quickly as 49-inches of monitor is a lot to be swinging around, but it’s an impressive feat nonetheless. The stand is also height adjustable through 3.5-inches, so you can make minor adjustments to set it at a comfortable height.

The whole package is exceedingly heavy though, weighing 58.27 pounds, so we wouldn’t recommend moving it without an extra pair of steady hands.

Display quality

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

If you’re buying a screen that could rival the average living room television in terms of physical footprint, you want the display to be of high quality. Fortunately, both Dell and Samsung oblige in this case, offering both enormous and stunning displays to choose from — though there are some marked differences between them.

For its $1,000 price tag, the Samsung CHG90 offers a 3,840 x 1,080 resolution screen with a curvature of 1,800R. It uses the VA panel type, which helps give it the great color accuracy and wide color support we saw in our testing. It even manages a 1ms response time, which isn’t a common feature of that panel type and has a great contrast ratio (we clocked it at 1,160:1). It does support HDR, but it wouldn’t meet the new VESA specifications, as its brightness peaked at 286 nits in our review.

Its gaming-centric specifications are pretty stellar though. Alongside the fast response time, the refresh rate of the CHG90 is 144Hz and if you can’t hold such frame rates at a steady clip in the latest AAA-games, FreeSync 2 support should help prevent screen tearing and stuttering.

In comparison, the Dell Ultrasharp 49 (U4919DW) comes in at a much higher cost of $1,700, but you do get some extras for your money — notably a lot more pixels. Its resolution is an intense 5,120 x 1,440 pixels which offers a lot more screen real estate and much higher detail levels in games. Think of it like two 1440p screens side by side without the bezel, where the CHG90 is more like two 1080p screens side by side.

The Ultrasharp uses an IPS panel so should have slightly richer colors. By the specifications, it has the same wide, 178-degree viewing angle as the Samsung display, as well as support for 1.07 billion colors.

Where it doesn’t offer quite so much is in the gaming department. The response time of the Ultrasharp 49 is 8ms, which is certainly usable in games, but it’s not ideal and those with the quickest of eyes may be able to tell a difference in faster-paced titles. It is brighter than the Samsung alternative, but it only offers a refresh rate of 60Hz, so doesn’t support high frame rates in the same way. It also doesn’t have any frame-syncing technologies, so gamers who want that functionality will have to rely on V-Sync.

Connectivity

Dan Baker/Digital Trends

Although at these sorts of monitor resolutions you’re going to want to use specific ports rather than others, having a good selection of options for versatility and connecting other peripherals is useful. The Samsung CHG90 comes with the choice of DisplayPort, mini-DisplayPort, two HDMI ports, a couple of USB-A connectors, a dedicated headphone jack, and a pair of microphone in/out jacks.

Notably absent on the Samsung monitor is a USB-C connection, which the Dell Ultrasharp 49 adds. Alongside that single reversible USB port, it also has a pair of HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.4 connector, five USB-A 3.0 downstream ports, and a pair of USB-A 3.0 upstream ports.

Versatile savings

Riley Young/Digital Trends

As much as the Dell Ultrasharp’s higher-resolution, impressive frame, and connectivity options make it an arguably better display in some cases, the Samsung CHG90 is the more versatile of the two displays — it’s also a lot cheaper.

For $700 less than the Dell alternative, the CHG90 gives you the same physical screen space to play with, a higher refresh rate, better response time, comparable colors, and support for FreeSync and HDR. The Ultrasharp might have some advantages, but at $1,700, it’s a hard sell when the Samsung is just so good.

While we’d like to see Samsung release a second-generation of its ultra, ultrawide display with USB-C and a higher resolution, for now there isn’t a screen like it, especially at that impressive $1,000 price point.

Overall winner: Samsung CHG90

Editors’ Recommendations

• Dell Ultrasharp 49 review
• Dell Ultrasharp U3818DW review
• World’s first 49-inch, dual QHD curved monitor tops Dell’s new line of displays
• The best ultrawide monitors of 2018
• Samsung CHG90 ultrawide monitor review

The new sleek, light, and powerful Asus Zenbooks are now available

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Asus revealed the availability of its series of new Zenbook devices that were originally announced at IFA 2018. The 13-inch, 14-inch, and 15-inch laptops all pack slim bezel displays and come configured with Intel’s eighth-generation Whiskey Lake processors under the hood.

Leading the lineup are 13-inch and 14-inch Zenbooks, starting at $850 and $1,000 in pricing. The 13-inch model will be coming later toward the end of November and the 14-inch model is set to go on sale on Amazon on November 14. Both models include Asus’ NanoEdge FHD 1,920 x 1,080 resolution displays for a slim design and a 95 percent screen-to-body ratio. Also, the two laptops have a unique numeric LED illuminated keypad in the touchpad which is activated with a touch of an icon.

As for the processors, the 13-inch model is configured with an Intel Core i5-8265U chipset and the 14-inch model the slightly more powerful Intel Core i7-8565U chipset. With storage, the 13-inch Zenbook comes with a modest 512 GB PCIe 3.0 x2 SSD as standard, and the 14-inch model a much larger 1TB SSD. A total of 16 GB of maximum RAM is common across both models, as is the ports and connectivity.

Ports include a mix of classic and modern, including USB C, classic USB A, USB 2.0, HDMI, MicroSD, and audio combo jack. Also included as standard on all the models are a Windows Hello camera and the Alexa virtual assistant for more seamless logins and a truly personal virtual assistant.

Capping the lineup is the $1,400 15.6 inch Asus ZenBook, which is set to become available later this month on Amazon. This leading Asus laptop comes with the Intel Core i7-8565U processor as standard, but also Nvidia GeForce MX150 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q dedicated graphics cards are available as options for gaming or more processor heavy tasks. A physical number pad is even included onboard the keyboard, and the ports and connectivity are the same as the 13-inch and 14-inch models. Storage starts at 1TB, with RAM coming in at 16GB.

These Windows 10 devices all look to be great, but Asus is making its NanoEdge slim bezel displays a common experience across its lineup. On October 24, it also introduced three new Chromebook models, all of which feature narrow bezels, Intel quad-core CPUs and similar premium design.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Asus claims ‘world’s thinnest’ title with its new Zephyrus S gaming laptop
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• The new thin-bezeled Chromebooks from Asus won’t empty your wallet
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