Save 20% on all sizes of Casper’s new three-layer foam Essential mattress
Comfort for less.
As part of its daily deals, Amazon has the Casper Sleep Essential mattress on sale for 20% off, dropping the prices to as low as $280. All of the sizes are available in this sale, so you’ll want to make sure to check it out before the day is over. The Essential mattress has a 3-layer hybrid foam to offer great support, breathability, and comfort. It sleeps cool thanks to the open cell foam top layer and offers minimal motion transfer so you won’t wake your sleeping partner as you toss and turn all night.
If you’ve been eyeing a Casper mattress but had a hard time justifying the price in the past, this deal makes it hard to resist. All of the sizes are 20% off, making the prices:
- Twin Mattress – $280 (Was $350)
- Twin XL Mattress – $320 (Was $400)
- Full Mattress – $400 (Was $500)
- Queen Mattress – $480 (Was $600)
- King Mattress – $580 (Was $725)
- California King Mattress – $580 (Was $725)
Make sure to pick up a bed frame and box spring foundation to complete your new mattress setup. Casper does offer a 100-night risk-free sleep trial, so if you end up not liking it you can always return it at no cost to you. It’s backed by a 10-year warranty.
The same 20% off deal is also available at Amazon Canada.
Early Pixel 3 Night Sight photos are beyond impressive
From specs, pricing, features, and more, here’s the latest on the Pixel 3 and 3 XL.
Following months of leak after leak, Google’s officially taken the wraps off its Pixel 3 and 3 XL smartphones. The two handsets look exactly like what we saw in all the early photos and renders, and while the element of surprise may be gone, we’ve still got two impressive Android handsets to talk about.
Without further ado, this is everything you need to know about the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL!
The latest Pixel 3 news
October 23, 2018 — Early Pixel 3 Night Sight photos are beyond impressive
The Google Pixel 3’s camera is one of the best you’ll find on a smartphone, but one of its most impressive features — Night Sight — won’t actually arrive until sometime in November.
However, a user on the XDA Developer forums modified the latest version of the Google Camera app and has enabled the feature ahead of its official release. XDA then put Night Sight to the test on the Pixel 3, 3 XL, and 2 XL, and the end results are simply amazing.
As you can see in the example above, the first photo without Night Sight turned on is barely visible at all. The second shot with Night Sight enabled looks like a completely different photograph. The amount of detail and light Google’s able to pull in with this new mode is literally jaw-dropping, and it’ll be even more exciting to see how it evolves and improves over time.
If you want to try out Night Sight early for yourself, download this APK to your Pixel phone. After you open it, tap More -> Night, and you should be good to go.
October 18, 2018 — The regular Pixel 3 uses an LG OLED display
Earlier this week, a teardown of the Pixel 3 XL revealed that it’s using an OLED display made by Samsung. The folks at iFixIt recently put the smaller Pixel 3 through that same treatment, and while doing so, discovered that its OLED panel is sourced from not Samsung, but LG.
If you remember the Pixel 2 series, this is a total flip-flop of what was going on last year in which the Pixel 2 had a Samsung panel and the Pixel 2 XL had an LG one.
In that situation, the Pixel 2 XL’s screen was noticeably worse with greater burn-in potential, color shifting, and more. That’s not the case for the LG panel on this year’s Pixel 3, and in fact, both displays have been tuned to look nearly identical to one another. Even so, it is interesting to see that Google’s still not relying on just one supplier when it comes to its smartphone displays.
October 17, 2018 — Google explains how the Pixel 3’s Titan M security chip works
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have a lot of tech packed inside them, and while it’s easy to get excited about their new OLED displays and improved cameras, one of the most important features is the new Titan M security chip.
Titan M is an all-new chip that’s designed with the single goal of keep the Pixel 3 secure, and in a post on the Android Developers Blog, Google recently dived into further detail about just how Titan M works.
The chip is a security module that was made by Google itself, and it works to protect the Pixel 3 + 3 XL against all sorts of potential threats. Since Titan M is a physical piece of tech, it’ll help protect against hardware-specific exploits such as Spectre, Meltdown, and Rowhammer much more efficiently than phones without it. On the technical side of things, Google explains the following:
Titan M’s CPU is an ARM Cortex-M3 microprocessor specially hardened against side-channel attacks and augmented with defensive features to detect and respond to abnormal conditions. The Titan M CPU core also exposes several control registers, which can be used to taper access to chip configuration settings and peripherals. Once powered on, Titan M verifies the signature of its flash-based firmware using a public key built into the chip’s silicon. If the signature is valid, the flash is locked so it can’t be modified, and then the firmware begins executing.
With the chip, Google notes that it hopes to achieve “transparency and building a platform for future innovation.”
Custom hardware allows us to provide new features, capabilities, and performance not readily available in off-the-shelf components. These changes allow higher assurance use cases like two-factor authentication, medical device control, P2P payments, and others that we will help develop down the road.
October 16, 2018 — The Pixel 3 XL uses a Samsung OLED display
While last year’s Pixel 2 XL had one of the worst displays for a phone in its price range, that’s an issue that’s been completely squashed with the Pixel 3 XL.
The screen on this year’s larger Pixel is brighter, colorful, and has less blue shift + burn-in potential compared to the 2 XL. The reason for this? A Samsung OLED panel.
Google opted for an LG-made OLED display with the Pixel 2 XL, but thanks to a recent iFixIt teardown, we now have confirmation that the Pixel 3 XL is using a Samsung one.
October 16, 2018 — Google explains how the Pixel 3’s Super Res Zoom feature works
The Pixel 3 comes chock-full of neat camera tricks, but perhaps one of the coolest is Super Res Zoom. This is the name of Google’s process for improving the clarity of digital zoom by collecting data from your hands shaking as you hold the phone in preparation to snap a photo.
Recently, the Google AI team took to their official blog to detail how exactly this works.
The Super Res Zoom technology in Pixel 3 is different and better than any previous digital zoom technique based on upscaling a crop of a single image, because we merge many frames directly onto a higher resolution picture. This results in greatly improved detail that is roughly competitive with the 2x optical zoom lenses on many other smartphones. Super Res Zoom means that if you pinch-zoom before pressing the shutter, you’ll get a lot more details in your picture than if you crop afterwards.
If Super Res Zoom detects that the camera isn’t shaking (e.g. the Pixel 3 is on a tripod or propped up on a table), it’ll actually start moving around on its own to simulate natural hand movement.
The post goes on to dive into of color filter arrays, multi-frame super-resolution, and a bunch of other nitty-gritty details. If that sounds like something you want to dig into, you can check it out here.
All the big details
Check out our full review!
Here it is, folks — the full Android Central review of the Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL!
These are easily two of the best Android phones you can buy right now, and no matter if you opt for the regular or XL model, you’ll be getting a fantastic display, an excellent software experience, and some of the best cameras on a smartphone in 2018.
They may not look like much on the outside, but these are two really special phones.
Google Pixel 3 review: Fewer features make incredible phones
Here are the specs!
If you’ve got a Pixel 2, a lot of the specs for the Pixel 3 and 3 XL will look very similar. There’s still 4GB of RAM and a starting storage amount of 64GB, but the Snapdragon 835 processor from last year has been replaced by the newer 845.
For a full rundown on both phones, check out the link below. 👇
Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL specifications
The displays are a lot better
Shortly after its release, one of the biggest controversies that popped up for the larger Pixel 2 XL was its poor display. We have an LG-made OLED panel once again, but the year-over-year difference is huge.
Google’s touting 400+ nits of brightness for both phones, 2X less burn-in potential, and less color shifting.
There are still three different color profiles to choose from so you can fine-tune your experience, and out of the box, both the Pixel 3 and 3 XL have been optimized so that their displays look identical next to one another.
For an extremely detailed analysis of the Pixel 3 XL’s display, check out DisplayMate’s full in-depth review in which it received a top A+ rating.
The Google Pixel 3 addresses our biggest complaint with the Pixel 2: its display
There are three colors
Google’s probably the best when it comes to naming its device colors, and this year we have Just Black and Very White. New this year is a pink hue that’s been aptly named “Not Pink.”
All three colors are available for both the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL no matter where you decide to buy them.
An all-glass back brings wireless charging support
For the past two years, Google’s used a mixture of aluminum and glass on the back of its phones. This year, the Pixel 3 shakes things up by adopting an all-glass construction.
There’s still an etched section near the top that adds a nice matte finish that allows for more grip and fewer fingerprints. Google’s also integrated Qi wireless charging support and selling a new Pixel Stand wireless charging accessory that’ll charge the Pixel 3 + 3 XL and put them into a new “dashboard” UI that shows a slideshow of pictures on Google Photos and various Assistant info.
The Pixel Stand is a $79 wireless charger for Pixel 3 that unlocks special display modes
Google’s made a ton of camera improvements
The Pixel 2 and 2 XL have some of the best cameras we’ve ever seen on a smartphone, and with the Pixel 3, Google’s making the camera experience even better.
Perhaps the biggest change includes the addition of a second front-facing camera. You now have access to a regular and wide-angle lens for all of your selfies and portrait mode works no matter which one you use. Google’s also integrated an algorithm to remove any distortion caused by the wider lens.
Other changes include:
- 40% faster HDR+ processing
- Improved detail retention while zooming
- Night Sight mode improves low-light shots
- Top Shot mode captures multiple frames before and after your picture and then recommends an alternative shot compared to what you actually captured
Along with all this, Google Lens is also built right into the Pixel 3’s camera app and works automatically when it detects something.
Android 9 Pie is available out of the box
As you’d expect, Android 9 Pie is running on the Pixel 3 and 3 XL from day one. This is the same Android Pie we’ve been using on the Pixel 2 phones, including the new navigation gestures, quick settings panel, etc.
The Pixel 3 does bring a handful of new software goodies, including the full release of Digital Wellbeing outside of its beta state and a slightly updated UI for the camera app.
There’s also a new call screening feature that’ll allow you to send your caller to a system that asks them to provide information about who they are and why they’re calling. What they say comes through in real-time and you can choose to hang up or pick up at any point.
There are already a ton of accessories
The Pixel 3 and 3 XL are great phones, but you can make them even better with a good collection of accessories.
Whether you’re in the market for a heavy duty case, screen protectors, or something else entirely, here are a few helpful links to get you started with outfitting your new phone.
- Best Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Accessories
- Best Cases for Google Pixel 3
- Best Cases for Google Pixel 3 XL
- These Are The Official Cases for the Google Pixel 3 lineup
- Best Screen Protectors for Google Pixel 3 XL
Here’s when and where you can buy it
If you want to pick up the Pixel 3 for yourself, pre-orders are open right now. The Pixel 3 costs $799 for the 64GB model and goes up to $899 if you get the 128GB variant. For those same storage configurations on the Pixel 3 XL, you’ll pay $899 and $999, respectively.
The Pixel 3 series will be sold at Verizon, Best Buy, the Google Store, and Project Fi.
See at Google Store
Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL
- Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL review
- Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL: Everything you need to know!
- Google Pixel 3 vs. Pixel 3 XL: Which should you buy?
- Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL specifications
- Join our Pixel 3 forums
Best Buy
Verizon
Google Store
Project Fi
UK Daily Deals: Netgear Nighthawk routers, high-capacity storage, and more
Whether you’re looking for new tech gear or household items, we’ve got you covered.
We found plenty of great deals today on Netgear Nighthawk smart routers, high-capacity portable storage, Xbox Live Gold membership, Andrew James kitchen appliances, and much more!
View the rest of the deals
Each day, the Thrifter UK team scouts out and shares amazing deals on products you know and love, helping you find the best prices on the ‘net.
For more UK deals coverage, be sure to keep an eye on Thrifter UK and follow the team on Twitter for the most up-to-the-minute coverage.
Wicked Audio Hum 900 review: Wireless headphones that never say die
Perfectly comfortable with battery life suited for marathon listening sessions.
When it comes to buying full-size headphones, I’ve always found myself settling into the mid-range. You know the brands, the sort of headphones you’d see for sale at your university bookstore or a Black Friday door crasher special. The sort of comfortable headphones that can put up with my daily use and abuse without breaking down — or breaking my bank account.
Wicked Audio is known for offering consumer-grade audio products — you won’t find a pair of headphones or earbuds priced north of $100. Usually, that means that one feature or another is compromised to get the price down, but with the Wireless Hum 900, you get super comfortable wireless headphones that sound great while delivering actual all-day battery life.
Comfortable for both your head and wallet
Wicked Hum 900
$72 at Amazon
$79.99 at Wicked Audio
Perfect grab-and-go headphones
Wicked Audio’s Hum 900 proves you don’t need to spend more than $100 for great wireless over-ear headphones. The battery life here is beyond impressive, offering over 13 hours of wireless audio on a fully charged battery, and they’ll stay comfortable for hours on end, too.
The Good
- Insanely good battery life
- Comfortable to wear for hours
- Balanced sound performance
- Easy to switch between Bluetooth connections
- Optional AUX cable and storage bag included
The Bad
- Micro-USB for charging
- Lacks active noise cancellation
- Rubberized finish attracts fingerprints
Wicked Audio Hum 900 What I like
The first thing that stood out to me right out of the box was the build quality. The ear cuffs are seriously comfy, with a soft-touch synthetic leather finish, and they fit snugly on my head. The rest of the headphone casing features a rubberized finish that looks nice (when it’s not covered in greasy fingerprints) and metallic plastic coverings at the folding joints, which I’m OK with because the joint and slider is sturdy and reinforced with metal.
These are some of the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever used.
All in all, I really appreciate the understated design here — all-black and sleek-looking with that faux-metallic accent, with the Wicked Audio branding relegated to the top of the headband. Track and volume controls are found on the back side of the left ear, while the power switch is found behind the right and I never really had to mess around with any clumsy Bluetooth pairing buttons.
Wicked Audio boasts that the Hum 900 battery life should hover around the 13-hour mark, and in my testing, I actually found these headphones as good or better than that benchmark. I unboxed them on a Wednesday afternoon and used them as my daily work headphones for the rest of the week, and kept testing them throughout the weekend. By Sunday, they were still showing 70% battery life remaining when paired with my Pixel XL, and they finally gave me the low battery warning by mid-afternoon Monday.
I was genuinely blown away by the battery performance given that I had accidentally left them switched on (but unpaired) for the first night, but I was happy to see my error hadn’t drained the battery at all. I was also quite happy to see Wicked Audio include a 3.5mm input and an AUX cable in the box. For the times that I’m recording podcasts or don’t need to be wireless, it’s a great option to have.
In terms of sound quality, these over-ear headphones sound way better than I ever thought an $80 pair of wireless headphones could produce. The low-end is booming without distorting the rest of the track when listening to hip-hop or other bass-heavy genres, and the sound quality come through clear even at the highest volume level.
That balance is evident, too, when listening to a more layered indie track where you’re able to pick out all the subtle instrumentals and really appreciate the sound mixing of your favorite albums. My go-to test album is “Deloused in the Comatorium” by The Mars Volta — a progressive masterpiece that jumps between being quiet and atmospheric to a loud cacophony of rhythm, guitar, and spacey sound effects — and It sounded sublime through the Hum 900s.
More important than almost anything else, these things are really comfortable to wear. The ample cushioning in the ear cups and headband and lightweight design have allowed me to wear them for hours at a time without any issues, and because they’re the over-the-ear style, you’re not stuck with a sore ear canal after extended use. I also live in a colder climate where these types of headphones perform a double duty in the winter as high-tech earmuffs, so I’m encouraged with both the battery performance and comfort once the snow starts flying.
Wicked Audio Hum 900 What I don’t like
There’s really not much to complain about with these headphones, because any missing features like noise-canceling or more premium materials would certainly bump up the end price and that’s a big factor in my recommendation.
There are some premium specs that would have been nice to have, but also would have bumped up the end cost.
For instance, it would have been nice to see the Micro-USB port replaced by USB-C that then could have been used for both high-capacity charging or a USB-C wired connection to a phone, but as someone still using a phone with a headphone jack, I’m more appreciative of the included AUX cable. It only takes two hours to recharge these back to 100% via Micro-USB and you can still wear them wired if the battery dies.
If you’re looking for active noise cancellation, Wicked Audio has you covered with the HUM 1000 headset, but it’s not a make-or-break feature for me and the exclusion here in exchange for a slightly lower price is a compromise I’m willing to accept. Then again, I work from home and am not a frequent flyer or a regular public transit rider, so that’s a feature I can generally do without.
Wicked Audio Hum 900
Affordable and comfortable for all-day wear with fantastic battery life, these are the headphones I would have loved to have owned during my university days.
4
out of 5
They come with charging cable, 3.5mm cable, and a carrying bag, and can be found for just $72 on Amazon.
See at Amazon
Lenovo Smart Display updated with multi-room audio, Home View hub, and more
The Echo Show is so 2017.
Ever since the Google Home came out in 2016, Google Assistant-powered smart speakers have been among the most popular smart home gadgets on the market.
We’ve seen these devices come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and now with the Lenovo Smart Display, we’ve got a Google Assistant speaker that comes with its own screen.
The Lenovo Smart Display is one of the most powerful (yet still rather affordable) smart speakers on the market right now, and if you’re already sucked into the Google ecosystem, should make for a great addition to your home.
Here’s everything you need to know!
The latest Lenovo Smart Display news
October 23, 2018 — Lenovo Smart Display updated with multi-room audio, Home View hub, and more
The Lenovo Smart Display is already one of the best smart home products you can buy, but thanks to a new software update that started rolling out on Oct. 22, it’s about to get even better.
This is the first major software update the Lenovo Smart Display has received, and with it comes the long-awaited support for multi-room audio groups with other Google Assistant speakers.
The Home View feature that debuted on the Google Home Hub is also included with the update, allowing you to quickly view and control all of your smart home devices with just one swipe down from the top of the Smart Display.
Other gooides inlcude support for the Nest Hello Doorbell and Live Albums with Google Photos that’ll automatically show your best and latest pictures without you having to manually select them for Ambient Mode.
Lenovo says this update will be available for everyone in “the next few weeks”, so be sure to keep an eye out for it!
All the big details
It comes in two sizes
Unlike most other Smart Displays that have been announced, the Lenovo Smart Display is not a one-size-fits-all product. Instead, there are two different versions you can choose between.
The base model is the most affordable and comes with an 8-inch touchscreen and white plastic back. If you’ve got a bit more cash to spend, you can pick up the 10-inch model that also swaps out the plastic back for a gorgeous bamboo one.
Aside from the difference in screen size and back material, however, there’s no functional difference between the two models.
All of your regular “Hey, Google” and “Ok, Google” commands work like you’d expect
Although the Lenovo Smart Display might look a lot different compared to the Google Home and Home Mini, all of the “Hey, Google” and “Ok, Google” commands you’re familiar with work just like you’d expect.
You can ask the Smart Display for the weather, call your mom, get directions to work, play music on Spotify, control your smart bulbs, and so much more.
Thanks to the inclusion of the display, however, almost all of these commands now come with an extra visual element to take your experience a step further. For example, asking for the weather shows a forecast and setting a timer will keep that timer on the screen so you can look over at any time and see how much of it is remaining.
The display is a touchscreen
On top of those glanceable elements that provide more info with just a look, both versions of the Smart Display also come with touchscreens so you can manually control some elements without using your voice.
You’ll still need to talk to the Smart Display for the majority of your interactions, but you can tap on the screen to skip a song on Spotify, adjust a slider to get the perfect temperature for your thermostat, scroll through your pictures on Google Photos, etc.
The touchscreen interactions are meant to supplement your voice commands rather than replace them, and while that might sound like a bit much at first, it’s a really natural experience after using the Smart Display for just a few minutes.
It’s the perfect kitchen TV
Being able to see the weather and your commute to work on the Lenovo Smart Display is incredibly helpful, but where this gadget’s screen really shines is with video content.
Although this won’t be replacing your home theater setup anytime soon, the Smart Display is a great supplementary TV for the kitchen or office.
More video sources should be coming in the future, but for the time being, you can watch YouTube, YouTube TV, and HBO Now.
How to watch YouTube videos on the Lenovo Smart Display
How’s it compare to the Amazon Echo Show?
The Lenovo Smart Display may be the first of its kind for Google Assistant speakers, but it’s certainly not the first smart speaker in the world to come equipped with a display.
Amazon beat Lenovo to the punch by an entire year, but that’s not to say Lenovo’s a year behind the Echo Show in regards to functionality and polish. In fact, the end result just might surprise you!
Lenovo Smart Display vs. Amazon Echo Show: Which should you buy?
There are still a few kinks here and there
While the Lenovo Smart Display does get a lot of things right, there are a few areas that would benefit from a software update or two.
Almost all of the day-to-day interactions work just fine, but there are some bugs that can make the experience a tad frustrating at times. To get a better idea of what I mean, check out the link below to see what 4 things we think would make the Smart Display even better.
4 things that’d make the Lenovo Smart Display even better
Pricing starts at $199
If you’re interested, you can pick up the 8-inch Lenovo Smart Display for just $199.99. If you’ve got more cash to spend and want the larger screen, you can step up to the 10-inch version for $249.99.
The Lenovo Smart Display is available in the United States at Best Buy, B&H, Walmart, Lenovo’s official website, and more.
See at Best Buy
Should I buy the Echo Plus + Echo Sub bundle?
Best answer: Yes, if you’re a music lover. If you’re using an Amazon Echo as a connected speaker for streaming music, then buying the Echo Plus + Echo Sub bundle makes a good thing a lot better.
Amazon: Echo Sub Bundle with 2 Echo Plus (2nd Gen) Devices ($330)
Great sound on a budget
Most people who listen to streaming music are doing it through a single, stand-alone speaker that plays back all the sound. It’s easy and with new products like the Google Home series of speakers and Smart Displays or 2018’s improved Amazon Echo devices, it sounds pretty good, too. However, there are better ways to fill a room with sound if that’s what you’re after, and they involve splitting the music into higher and lower tones then routing it through the “right” speaker — one of which is a subwoofer.
Adding a subwoofer can dramatically improve the sound of any stereo system.
The problem is that streaming audio through a 2.1 (that’d be two standard speakers and one subwoofer) system means spending a lot of money. The options are to buy a stand-alone device like a Chromecast Audio and connect it to a stereo receiver or to spend the money on a Sonos system. Both options make for some beautiful music and there are some people who appreciate crystal-clear mid-range and high tones through a good set of speakers with deep booming bass played on a hidden subwoofer. You can “feel” the music as well as hear it. You could also feel your wallet get lighter as nothing here is what you would call cheap.
Amazon thinks more people would enjoy a 2.1 system if they didn’t have to spend upwards of $1,000 or more to have one, so it introduced the Echo Sub. Paired with a set of 2018 Echo Plus devices, I think the company provided exactly what it wanted to make and exactly what a lot of people were waiting for.
Make no mistake — this three-piece setup doesn’t sound as good as any Sonos product or a good stereo system with a Chromecast Audio, but it does sound good enough to justify the $300 or so it costs. The new Echo Plus sounds a lot better than the previous model — I was taken aback when I first tried them paired is a stereo group — and the addition of a subwoofer pulled the deepest bass away from the music and let me feel it through my feet from an Echo Sub hidden out of the way.
The Echo Sub’s build quality was surprisingly good considering its low price.
The Echo Sub is extremely well built as are most of Amazon’s hardware offerings. It’s heavy, has an ample downward firing ported enclosure (there is no option for a rear port if that’s what you’re after) and an attractive design in case you don’t want to hide it behind the couch or under an end table. Setup is easy: Simply open the Alexa app on your phone and select Create a Speaker Group to choose your two Echo Plus devices and your Echo Sub. Do note that the Echo Sub only works with the newer 2018 models of Echo and Echo Plus. Once set up, all you need to do is ask Alexa to play some music and you’ll instantly notice the difference.
I mentioned the sound wasn’t the same quality you’d find from more expensive products, and if you’ve tried those you’ll notice that, too. Plenty of low frequency sounds still get routed through the Echo Plus pairing and the Echo Sub only handles the lowest of the lows. Depending on your hearing, you might not hear much coming from the subwoofer itself but you’ll definitely feel it in the floor as the 6-inch (100 watt RMS) speaker thumps. My only issue is that the adaptive low-pass filter doesn’t seem to work as I expected and plenty of the audio in the 200 Hz range still seems to come through the Echo Plus speakers themselves.
I’m happy with the Echo Plus and Echo Sub bundle and think it makes for a great second system for the master bedroom.
As somewhat of an audiophile, I have an elaborate vintage Yamaha stereo receiver with stand-alone speakers and a subwoofer that cost about triple the price of the Echo Plus and Echo Sub bundle. I have a Chromecast Audio connected for my streaming needs and can be a little picky when it comes to audio quality. The Echo Plus + Echo Sub bundle doesn’t sound as good as my stereo, and I didn’t expect it to. However, it sounds good enough to make me happy with the purchase at $330 and it makes for a great system for my master bedroom. I’d heartily recommend it for anyone who wants a true wireless 2.1 system without spending a lot of money on it.
Our pick
Echo Sub Bundle with 2 Echo Plus (2nd Gen) Devices
$330 at Amazon
3-piece audio on a budget
Streaming audio through a 2.1 system with a subwoofer sounds great but has always been a bit expensive to accomplish. the Echo Sub paired with two second-generation Echo Plus devices changes that and this bundle makes for a fine solution for anyone looking for great sound without spending a lot of money.
HTC’s blockchain-telefoon ‘Exodus 1’ vanaf december verkrijgbaar
HTC’s verwachte block-telefoon is aangekondigd. De Exodus 1 bevat diverse blockchain-technologie en zal vanaf december geleverd worden en is vanaf nu te pre-orderen. Betalen kan alleen in Bitcoin (BTC) of Ethereum (ETH).
Je moet het HTC wel nageven; ze hebben een neusje voor dingen die uiteindelijk niets worden. Toen de eerste geruchten over een HTC blockchain-telefoon opdoken stond de Bitcoin-koers nog op een all time high. Iedereen stapte in bang de boot te missen. Ook bedrijven gingen in die hype mee waaronder nu dus HTC. Inmiddels is de rust in cryptocurrency-land weder gekeerd, winsten zijn verdampt en de lofzangen uitgedoofd als een stille kaars. De techniek die onze levens ging veranderen bleek een oplossing voor een niet bestaand probleem. En net nu we weer met beide benen op de grond staan kondigt HTC de mosterd-na-de-maaltijd Exodus 1 aan.
De HTC Exodus 1
En toch, zoals wel vaker bij HTC, brengen ze wel iets interessants. Zo bevat de HTC Exodus 1 een veilige enclave, volledig afgezonderd van het besturingssysteem. Hier kun je de sleutels tot je gegevens opslaan. Dat kunnen bitcoins zijn maar ook documenten. Om toch een decentrale blockchain te hebben kun je contacten aanwijzen waarmee je samen de informatie via een geheim algoritme deelt. Daarmee kun je ook je sleutels weer terughalen mocht je je telefoon kwijtraken. Briljant concept of een ‘disaster waiting to happen’? Om dit geheime algoritme en de potentie van HTC’s blockchain-techniek te onderwerpen aan testen vraagt HTC de hulp van de crypto-gemeenschap.
Ontvang een e-mail wanneer de Exodus 1 verkrijgbaar is
Afrekenen in Bitcoin
Naast een blockchain-telefoon is de HTC Exodus 1 een toestel met groot 6 inch Quad HD+ scherm, Snapdragon 845-processor, 6 GB aan RAM-werkgeheugen, 16 + 12 megapixel hoofdcamera, dubbele 8 megapixel selfiecam en 3500 mAh batterij. De Android-versie is O met nog geen woord over mogelijke updates. De behuizing is IP68 water- en stofbestendig met een transparante achterkant. Qua specs is het daarmee een kopie van de U12+. Op https://www.htcexodus.com is nu al een exemplaar te bestellen voor de prijs van 0,15 BTC of 4,78 ETH, omgerekend naar de huidige koers is dat ongeveer 840 euro. Dat is op dit moment 200 euro duurder dan de op het oog gelijkwaardige HTC U12+.
“Samsung werkt aan gamingtelefoon met eigen GPU”
We zien de laatste tijd steeds vaker gamingtelefoons opduiken. Bewijs dat daarvoor een markt is. Iets wat ook Samsung is opgevallen zo lijkt. De Zuid-Koreanen zijn naar verluidt druk bezig met een dergelijke telefoon geheel voorzien van eigen grafische processor (GPU).
Momenteel maakt Samsung in haar Exynos-chipset gebruik van de Mali GPU van ARM. Echter behaalt Apple momenteel erg goede resultaten met een eigen grafische chip. Reden voor Samsung ook die mogelijkheid af te wegen en naar verluidt zijn ze al een tijdje bezig met een geheel eigen grafische processor, een zogenaamde GPU. Een krachtige grafische chip is noodzakelijk om zware grafische toepassingen te kunnen draaien zoals games. Een eigen GPU zou Samsung een voordeel opleveren ten opzichte van andere gaming-fabrikanten zoals Razer die net de Razer Phone 2 uitbrachten.
Binnenkort een Exynos met eigen GPU?
Een eigen GPU is niet alleen handig voor een eigen gaming-telefoon, Samsung zou deze ook in haar overige Galaxy-telefoons kunnen toepassen. En doordat ze niet meer bij ARM hoeven in te kopen kunnen ze zelfs kosten besparen al zal de besparing die dat oplevert wel enkele jaren kosten. Testen van een zogenaamde S-GPU zijn nog niet opgedoken, we weten dus nog niet hoe een eigen GPU zich verhoudt ten opzichte van de GPU in Apple’s A12 Bionic. Meer kracht betekent ook meer warmte. Er is dus betere koeling nodig. Daarvoor zou Samsung haar oog hebben laten vallen op dezelfde koeling als in de Note9; Water Carbon Cooling.
(via)
Apple Planning to Fix ‘BeautyGate’ Skin-Smoothing Camera Effect in iOS 12.1 Update
This morning reviews for Apple’s iPhone XR were released, and among them were The Verge’s impressions on the new smartphone. In a section of the review that focuses on the iPhone XR ‘s camera, the site notes that Apple is planning to address the issue of “BeautyGate” in the upcoming iOS 12.1 update, which is currently being tested by developers and public beta testers.
BeautyGate began when iPhone XS and XS Max users started noting that selfies captured on the new smartphones were applying a skin-smoothing effect or “beauty filter,” resulting in photos that looked quite different from those taken on the iPhone X or earlier iPhones. All three of Apple’s new 2018 iPhones have a 12-megapixel rear-facing wide-angle camera lens (while the iPhone XS and XS Max have an additional 12-megapixel telephoto lens), as well as the exact same front-facing TrueDepth camera system.
With all of the same tech inside of it, iPhone XR is now facing reports of skin-smoothing camera effects in its first reviews, which caused The Verge to ask Apple about the issue. In essence, Apple’s new iPhones are taking multiple pictures at varying exposure levels, requiring noise reduction that creates a smoothing effect over the entire image, not just specifically on skin tones. While this “Smart HDR” feature brings out more details in highlights and shadows, when faces show up in an image they sometimes appear tuned and artificial. This is what Apple is aiming to fix:
Apple told me that the forthcoming iOS 12 .1 update, currently in public beta, will address the issue of the front camera appearing to smooth out skin by picking a sharper base frame for Smart HDR, but I wasn’t able to test it yet.
As the BeautyGate scandal grew, earlier in the month YouTuber Jonathan Morrison challenged user’s perception of skin-smoothing effects in a video. Before the video, he shared two selfies on Instagram that he claimed were taken on Google Pixel 2’s Portrait Mode, and then asked for his viewers’ opinions. Many responded by touting the Pixel 2’s quality, pointing out that it didn’t need a beauty filter like iPhone XS . A few days later, Morrison revealed that both selfies were captured on an iPhone XS Max, not a Google Pixel 2. In the reveal video, he stated, “I just wanted it to be a little bit of a lesson out there: don’t let a preconceived notion or headline skew your judgement.”
The iPhone XR is getting solid reviews from numerous media outlets today, which tout the smartphone’s lengthy battery life, performance and speed, quality Liquid Retina LCD display, and colorful paint jobs. As The Verge points out in its review, the real difference between the iPhone XR and XS are the 6.1-inch LCD screen vs the 5.8-inch OLED screen: “The real question for iPhone buyers is whether the high-res OLED display on the XS is worth $250 more than the XR. Because otherwise, the XR offers almost everything you’d want in a 2018 phone.”
Related Roundups: iPhone XS, iPhone XRBuyer’s Guide: iPhone XS (Buy Now), iPhone XR (Buy Now)
Discuss this article in our forums
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 675 will power the next generation of midrange phones
Earlier this year Qualcomm took the wraps off of the new Snapdragon 700-series chips, but it turns out the addition of the 700-series was never aimed at replacing the 600 series. In fact, the company has just unveiled a new 600-series chip — the Qualcomm Snapdragon 675.
The new chip is aimed at bringing some of Qualcomm’s more premium features to lower-cost phones, including optimization for gaming — where Qualcomm says it was able to reduce stutters by up to 90 percent. Apart from that, the chipset features the Qualcomm Spectra 250L image signal processor, which supports camera sensors of up to 48 megapixels, portrait mode, 5x optical zoom, and so on.
Qualcomm is also touting the artificial intelligence of the chipset. According to the company, the chip improves on A.I. performance by up to 50 percent, and the included A.I. engine is optimized to do things like adapt to a user’s voice.
“Packed with advanced gaming abilities, remarkable camera performance and a multi-core AI Engine, Snapdragon 675 based smartphones will bring new experiences to consumers globally,” Qualcomm said in a statement.
When it comes to raw processing power, the chipset offers eight Kryo 460 CPUs with a clock speed of up to 2.0GHz. Six of those cores are built for efficiency and as such, the chip will improve on battery life when using them. Then, when higher performance is needed, the two performance cores will kick in. That is not bad for what will ultimately be a midrange chip. According to Qualcomm, the chip will likely end up in phones in the $350 to $500 range — and while that’s a pretty wide price range, it does differentiate the chip from 700-series devices, which seem to come at slightly more expensive phones aimed at offering a premium phone experience without the $800-plus price tag that comes with flagship phones these days.
As you would expect from a Qualcomm chip, there is a heavy emphasis on the modem involved too — it features the Snapdragon X12 modem, which supports download speeds of up to 600Mbps. You will also get support for Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4+, which can charge a battery from zero to 50 percent in 15 minutes, though that will vary depending on the size of the battery.
We’re not quite sure exactly when phones will start popping up with the new Snapdragon 675, though based on Qualcomm’s previous track record, it’s likely we’ll see phones with the new chip within a few months.
Editors’ Recommendations
- Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 3100 chip will finally make Google’s Wear OS competitive
- Microsoft confirms Redstone 5 as Windows 10 October 2018 Update
- Moto Z3 review
- Qualcomm’s next flagship mobile chip will feature 5G connectivity
- Qualcomm may finally reveal a new wearable chipset on September 10
