The secret to robots with good balance? Shakira-level gyrating hips

As much as we might worry about what robots are going to do to humankind, they’ve got plenty of their own to be concerned about when it comes to how they are treated by members of the public. Whether it’s mean-spirited shoves or kicks or simply just the odd accidental bump, robots are going to have to get better at retaining their balance when they’re suddenly faced with an unexpected force without warning.

That’s where Mercury, a new bipedal robot created by roboticists at the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, comes into play. Mercury is designed to exhibit an impressive dynamic, human body-inspired ability to stay balanced when encountering these scenarios. It does this using a smart system that lets it quickly work out the best possible move to make following a collision. Unlike other attempts to solve this problem, it reacts by adjusting its whole body — including some Shakira-style hip wiggling — rather than just readjusting its feet.

“What we’ve developed is a computational process by which bipedal robots can quickly recover from continuous disturbances, like those endured by people walking in crowds, without ever falling,” Luis Sentis, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, told Digital Trends. “Such technology opens up the possibility that humanoid robots [can] walk and operate nimbly alongside us — for instance, during crowded sport events, getting inside transportation vehicles, holding groceries while shopping, or even dancing salsa with us.”

The team next plans to continue testing Mercury under additional experimental conditions to see how it copes under situations like carrying furniture, guiding a person by holding hands, or potentially playing soccer. Given that even the smartest robots can easily lose their balance, a more robust method for keeping robots upright would certainly be welcomed by the robotics community.

“One of the key questions we are considering is what capabilities and morphologies will allow robots to increase human comfort and productivity,” Sentis continued. “We believe that in addition to nimble locomotion and dexterous manipulation, endowing anthropomorphic attributes to robots increases our understanding of their behavior, much in the same way that we require artificial intelligence to respond to our questions in human-like ways.”

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• Brain-controlled third arm lets you take your multitasking to the next level

Amazon Fire HD 8 review (2018)

Research Center:

Amazon Fire HD 8

With the exception of Apple and Huawei, tablet sales have been in a death spiral for years. As smartphone screens grow larger and unlimited data plans allow you to stream Netflix or Hulu anywhere, shelling out a lot of money for a slightly larger screen that’s usually beholden to a Wi-Fi connection doesn’t make much sense. Unless the tablet is hits a sweet spot in price. Amazon’s latest Fire HD 8 is a strong contender, being one of the cheapest on the market at $80. But there’s such a thing as too cheap.

Basic and durable design

The Fire HD 8 comes in four colors — Black, Canary Yellow, Marine Blue, and Punch Red — and that’s about the only notable part of its design. There’s nothing special here; it’s as basic as a tablet can get.

It’s an 8-inch screen on the front, and it’s surrounded by chunky bezels that help with holding the tablet. The back is constructed of plastic, and the only other flourish other than the Amazon branding is a  two-megapixel rear camera on the top left side. You’d expect the plastic body to feel cheap, but the Fire HD 8 is surprisingly durable. Its size makes it easy to hold in one hand, though you’ll want to use caution as the case is a bit slippery.

Steven Winkelman/Digital Trends

All the buttons on the Fire HD are at the top (in portrait orientation). The headphone jack and the volume rocker are on the left side, while you will find a power button and a Micro-USB charging port on the right side.There’s also a MicroSD slot here that can add another 400GB of external storage in case the built-in 16GB isn’t enough.

We’d have really liked to see USB Type-C implemented here.

Considering the tablet is $80 this isn’t much of an issue, but we’d have really liked to see USB Type-C implemented here. Most Android phones have a Type-C charging port, and it would make things simpler if you didn’t need an extra charger.

The left side of the Fire HD 8 is home to stereo speakers that support Dolby Atmos. While they don’t pack a lot of bass and they can sound a little tinny, they’re sufficiently loud when the tablet is directly in front of you. It will hardly fill a quiet room, so don’t expect them to replace your Bluetooth speakers.

A disappointing display

The Fire HD 8 maintains the same 1,280 x 800 resolution for its LCD screen. While Amazon bills the display as “crisp,” it’s anything but: The screen is far from sharp and pixels are easily seen from an arms length. In fact, you’ll notice these pixels in just about every scenario, from the fuzzy text in books to low resolution movies in Prime Video. It also has poor viewing angles, so you’ll need to look at the tablet directly to be able to see everything clearly.

Steven Winkelman/Digital Trends

On a more positive note, the screen did get bright enough to see in direct sunlight outdoors.

Performance can be frustrating, but battery life is great

The hardware in this year’s Fire HD 8 is nearly identical to the models Amazon released in 2017 and 2016. There’s a 1.3 GHz Mediatek quad-core processor, along with the same 1.5 GB of RAM. The base storage is still only 16GB, but there is a 32GB model as well (and a MicroSD card slot for up to 400GB more if needed).

We encountered a good deal of lag when using the Fire HD 8 for just about any and every task.

We encountered a good deal of lag when using the Fire HD 8 for just about any and every task. From the Prime Video app to the Bookstore, every app took a few seconds to open. Third party apps are even worse: It took nearly five seconds for the New York Times app to open, and nearly as long for Hulu and a recommended Sudoku app to load. It’s not unbearable, but it can be frustrating when you just want to quickly get into an app to read or watch something.

As for the battery, Amazon claims you’ll get 10 hours per charge. It’s a bit optimistic, but we had no problem getting six-and-a-half to seven hours when streaming Hulu and Netflix, with 15 percent battery life to spare. You can go for longer if you’re just using the tablet to read or browse the web.

Amazon Fire HD 8 Compared To

Microsoft Surface Book 2 13-inch

Microsoft Surface Go

Huawei MediaPad M5 Pro

Apple iPad 9.7-inch (2018)

Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017)

Amazon Fire HD 8 (2017)

Xiaomi Mi Pad 3

LeapFrog epic

Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (8-inch)

Lenovo Tab 2 A8

Dell Venue 8 Pro

Barnes & Noble Nook HD+

Toshiba Excite 7.7

Motorola Xyboard 8.2

BlackBerry PlayBook

Once the battery is drained, it took six hours to get a full charge, which is a little ridiculous. There’s no quick charging option for the tablet, all of which could have been avoided if Amazon went with a USB-C port.

It’s unlikely you’re buying a tablet for its camera, and if you are, you should know what to expect with an $80 piece of hardware. While both cameras on the Fire HD got a slight bump up to two-megapixels, photographs are still very low quality. The front two-megapixel camera is just okay for video calling, but that’s about it.

Fire OS and Alexa Integration

It’s 2018, but the latest version of Fire OS is still based on Android 5.1 Lollipop — a version of the Android operating system that was released in 2014. Amazon pushes out regular updates to its tablets, but the main issue is compatibility with newer third-party apps you may attempt to side load outside of Amazon’s App store. We often ran into the issue of trying to install apps that weren’t compatible.

Steven Winkelman/Digital Trends

Other than the new For You tab that directs you to recently accessed media and apps, this year’s Fire OS update doesn’t look much different than previous versions. Fire OS is set up a bit differently than the typical Android operating system to which you may be accustomed. Instead of finding all of your apps on the home screen or in an app drawer, Fire OS is separated into different pages that primarily highlight different Amazon products or services. Some of the pages include Books, Video, Shop, Music, and Audible. If you want to get the most from the Fire HD 8, you’ll want to be an Amazon Prime subscriber.

While you can download some third-party apps like Netflix and Hulu, your options are limited since it uses Amazon’s own app store instead of the Google Play Store. You won’t find apps like Google Maps or Tinder, and some “apps” like YouTube are simply bookmarks that lead you to web version.

Improved Amazon integration is a welcome and overdue feature on the Fire HD 8.

Improved Amazon integration is a welcome and overdue feature on the Fire HD 8. You can now trigger Alexa with your voice, and while the Fire HD 8 doesn’t have the same far-field microphones as Amazon’s Echo devices, it does a pretty good job picking up your voice from a few feet away. There’s also a new Show Mode that uses the tablet screen to provide useful information related to your Alexa queries. If you’re willing to shell out an extra $40, there’s a Show Mode Charging Dock that turns the Fire HD 8 into a makeshift Amazon Show while it charges.

Thinking of buying this Fire HD 8 to act as an Echo Show? Think otherwise. While the microphones can pick up your voice from a few feet away, Alexa isn’t as quick to respond, and everything in general feels much faster and smoother on the Echo Show.

Price, availability, and warranty information

Amazon’s Fire HD 8 starts at $80, and it’s now available for purchase through Amazon.

The tablet comes with a 90-day warranty that covers any defects in materials and workmanship. If you’re looking for a longer warranty, Amazon offers one, two, or three year warranties when you set up the Fire HD 8.

Our Take

At $80, the Fire HD 8 may be the best budget tablet on the market, but that’s not saying much. It can be slow and frustrating to use, which often makes us want to pull out our smartphone.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes and no. If you’re looking for a budget tablet, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better option than the Fire HD 8. However, if you’re willing to invest a little more, better options become available.If you want to stay within Amazon’s garden, consider the Fire HD 10. For $70 more, you get a beefier processor, a and higher resolution screen. If you want a more traditional Android tablet, check out the Huawei MediaPad M5, which has a good screen and strong speakers for $319.

For iOS or MacOS users, you may want to consider the 2018 iPad. While it costs $250 more than the Fire HD 8, it’s a better tablet all the way around. It has a much better display, a more powerful processor, a good camera, far more tablet-optimized apps, and it has Apple Pencil compatibility.

How long will it last?

We think you’ll get one, maybe two, good years from the Fire HD 8. While durability is not an issue, performance may only get worse as time goes on.

Should you buy it?

No, unless you’re absolutely committed to spending less than $100 on a tablet. We recommend shelling just a little more cash for much better options.

Here’s who won the 2018 Nobel Prizes in Science and why

Love them or hate them, the Nobel Prizes in Science remain some of the highest accolades in the world. Awarded almost annually by the Nobel Foundation and Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the prizes honor individuals who’ve made outstanding contributions to physics, chemistry, and medicine. Some say the Nobel prizes fail modern-day science. Others have called them an absurd way of honoring achievement.

For their part, the Nobel Foundation probably thinks their awards help grease the wheels of progress and keep researchers doing the things they’re doing. One thing is for sure — the prize winners’ achievements are nothing short of extraordinary.

Here’s a brief breakdown of the 2018 Nobel Prizes in Science award winners, along with an explanation about why their work matters. (In case you missed it, here’s our breakdown of last year’s winners.)

Physics

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Arthur Ashkin OSA

Gérard Mourou PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Donna Strickland Cole Burston/Getty Images

Winners: Arthur Ashkin, Gérard Mourou, and Donna Strickland

Why they won: Arthur Ashkin from Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, United States, was awarded the prize “for his groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.”

The second half of the award was granted to Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou for their chirped pulse amplifications, “a method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses.” Strickland is a researcher at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Mourner is from École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Why it matters: Ashkin’s lasers can be used like “optical tweezers” to manipulate particles as small as atoms, to probe how they function in biological systems. This sounds pretty sci-fi but it’s been widely used in the real world since Ashkin made his breakthrough in 1987. The minuscule tool may be used to unlock the ever-allusive secrets of the quantum world, and aid in the emerging field of quantum biology.

Through their research, Strickland and Mourou cleared the way for scientists to generate the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created by humans. By stretching the laser pulses out over time, then amplifying the pulse, and finally compressing the pulse, they were able to pack a ton energy into a small amount of space. Chirped pulse amplifications are now used in millions of corrective eye surgeries each year. The two researchers made their first breakthrough in 1985.

It’s also important to note that Strickland’s win makes her only the third woman to win a Nobel in physics and the first woman in 55 years to be recognized with the prize.

Chemistry

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Frances H. Arnold FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

George P. Smith BILL GREENBLATT/AFP/Getty Images

Gregory P. Winter Chris Williamson/Getty Images

Winners: Frances H. Arnold, George P. Smith, and Gregory P. Winter

Why they won: Arnold, from the California Institute of Technology, was awarded the prize “for the directed evolution of enzymes.”

Smith and Winter won “for the phase display of peptides and antibodies.” Smith is from the University of Missouri, Columbia and Winter is from MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Why it matters: The winners each used genetic change and selection—inherent aspects of evolution—to create proteins that chip away at some of the chemical conundrums faced by humanity.

In 1993, Arnold conducted the first directed evolution of enzymes, a class of proteins that kickstart chemical reactions. Over the next 15 years, she refined her technique, enabling the production of new enzymes that allow for chemical manufacturing techniques that are less harmful to the environment. Today, these enzymes are used to fabricate everything from pharmaceutical drugs that save lives to biofuels that could help save the planet as alternatives to fossil fuels.

Smith made his breakthrough in 1985 with the development of phage display, a method in which a bacteriophage (a virus that infects bacteria) is used to create new proteins. Winter later used this method for the directed evolution of antibodies that led to new pharmaceuticals, the first of which was Adalimumab, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and inflammatory bowel diseases. More recent pharmaceuticals created through phage displays have been used to neutralize toxins and cure metastatic cancer.

Medicine

James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo, winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Getty Images

Winners: James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo

Why they won: Allison and Honjo share the prize “for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation.”

Why it matters: In his research, Allison investigated a protein found on immune cells, which were known to act as a braking mechanisms for the immune system. The researcher’s breakthrough came when he recognized that, by easing off the brake, immune responses could be accelerated to target tumors. Allison’s innovative approach has since been turned into therapies, including for the treatment of an advanced form of skin cancer.

Honjo, meanwhile, identified another immune-cell protein, which also acts as a brake, but functions differently than the one studied by Allison. Over the following years, Honjo unraveled the role of the protein, while he and other researchers leveraged the findings to develop new and effective treatments for cancer patients.

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The Nokia True wireless earbuds have a miniscule form factor

These + your phone = a match made in heaven.

Hot on the heels of the Nokia 7.1 smartphone, a new product is here that will pair perfectly with your smartphone.

Meet the Nokia True Wireless Earbuds. These sleek, minimalist headphones are super lightweight, coming in at just 5 grams per earbud. They come rocking Bluetooth 5.0 and feature IPX4 resistance, meaning splashes and sweat won’t pause performance. You’ll get up to 3.5 hours of stereo music playback and phone calls per charge, though that increases slightly if you’re only using them to chat on the phone. The included USB-C case acts as a portable charger which can bring your headphones back to life a full three times before needing to be recharged itself. It also features a spring-release button system to pop your headphones out. They’ll retail for about $150 when they’re released, whenever that may be. We don’t yet have a definite release date.

This is an interesting move, considering the Nokia 7.1 will have a headphone jack. However, these are a nice lightweight alternative to something like the Anker Soundcore Liberty wireless headphones, and you’ll be future-proofed should a future device be jack-less.

If you don’t want to lose any earbuds or your budget is slightly smaller, you may be more interested in the $79 Pro Wireless Earphones. These are connected by an around-the-neck wire and charge over Micro USB. The battery life is improved over the True Earbuds, and the neckband has built-in controls as well. The neatest features are all about tactile feedback. The magnetic earbuds can click together to end calls or pause music, and they vibrate when you have an incoming call. While you’ll be a bit behind with Bluetooth 4.2, you can also use these with various voice assistants which is always nice. The release date on these is yet to be determined as well, though we anticipate both pairs being available by the end of the year.

See at Nokia

Catch up on the entire Kingdom Hearts ‘Story So Far’ for PlayStation 4

Dive back into the originals before the new adventure begins.

With Kingdom Hearts 3 less than four months away from its release, Square Enix is releasing yet another Kingdom Hearts collection on PlayStation 4 to get new players up to speed before the finale of the Xehanort saga, titled Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far.

This collection comprises the 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix Collection with the 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue Collection. Though all of these games have already made their way to the PlayStation 4 separately, this is the first time you’ll be able to grab them all at once. Purchasing them this way is a much more cost-effective method too.

The Kingdom Hearts series can be a confusing mess — take it from a fan — and the naming conventions of the games do not make it any easier. To clarify, The Story So Far collection will include six games and three films made of cutscenes; the games include Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 2, Chain of Memories, Birth By Sleep, Dream Drop Distance, and 0.2 Birth By Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage, while the cutscene collections contain the stories of 358/2 Days, Re:coded, and χ back cover. Pro tip: just play them in order of release.

Jumping straight into Kingdom Hearts 3 after not playing games such as Chain of Memories and Birth By Sleep will be possible, as KH3 is set to include a series of videos to bring new players up to speed. However, you’re missing out on a majority of the story by doing so. The Story So Far collection costs just $40 and contains everything you’ll need to truly be prepared for KH3. It’s now available to pre-order via Amazon and is set to release on October 30.

If you’re definitely planning on buying Kingdom Hearts 3, another way to purchase all the games is by opting for the digital Kingdom Hearts: All-In-One bundle which includes everything in The Story So Far along with Kingdom Hearts 3 and an exclusive PS4 Dynamic Theme for $99.99 via the PlayStation Store.

Kingdom Hearts fans will need to keep an eye out during the coming months as a deluge of new products are released for fans, from a KH3 Sora Funko Pop to PDP’s Replica Kingdom Key Keyblade and the super cool Sora Pixel Pal.

Those who pre-order Kingdom Hearts 3 at Amazon will receive a $10 promo certificate around 30 days after it ships. That offer is not available on The Story So Far, however.

See at Amazon

Is your router vulnerable to attacks? New report says odds aren’t in your favor

A new study out by the American Consumer Institute shows that 83 percent of routers in the United States are vulnerable to cyberattacks.  The group finds that a majority of those routers have critical security vulnerabilities, primarily due to the lack of firmware updates.

In testing a total of 186 routers from leading manufacturers like Netgear and Linksys, the study found that over 155 were vulnerable to potential cyberattacks. Individually, there were 172 vulnerabilities per router, and 32,003 vulnerabilities in total.

The distribution of vulnerabilities (Chart from The American Consumer Institute)

Though a shocking number, the vulnerabilities were all ranked in severity, of low, medium, and high by the National Security Database. Each of these vulnerabilities takes a different set of hacking skills to exploit, with 21 percent being ranked high, 60 percent medium, and 12 percent low.

“High and critical vulnerabilities are more easily exploited, and it could cause more damage than low and medium vulnerabilities. High-risk vulnerabilities require very little knowledge or skill to exploit, but, unlike critical-risk vulnerabilities, they will not entirely compromise the system. The potential damage remains a concern, as exploited high-risk vulnerabilities can partially damage the system and cause information disclosure,” explains the report.

The entire sample considered, a total of 28 percent of the vulnerabilities were also ranked as high risk. There was also, on average, 12 critical vulnerabilities and 36 high-risk vulnerabilities, across the entire sample.

Unfortunately, the report also finds that the fix for these vulnerabilities belongs in the hands of consumers and router vendors. Manufactures provide firmware updates to address these critical issues, but they are not always easy to install.  Since the FBI warned of previous Russian intrusion in Wi-Fi routers earlier this year, there are serious implications here for business and consumers.

The world is every connected, and this poses risk for Internet of Things devices, network-attached storage devices, and anything that is connected to the internet. Even if it seems like a daunting task, always stay on top of your security updates, and check your router manufacturer website for more information on how to update your firmware.

If you’re concerned if your router is impacted, you can check out the final page of the study, which has a complete list of impacted models.

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Surface Pro 6 vs. Surface Book 2

Mark Coppock/Digital Trends

Microsoft’s Surface products aren’t for everyone, but if you want a powerful 2-in-1 with great battery life, there aren’t many that can compare. When you look at the new and different entries within the Surface line though, it becomes much harder to decide which is best. To try and nail it down, we pitted the Surface Pro 6 vs. Surface Book 2 and compared them on design, performance, and portability.

For a look at some of our other favorite 2-in-1s, check out our buying guide.

Design

Almost the entirety of Microsoft’s Surface line of products exudes a cool professionalism that is hard to find outside of Apple’s MacBook Pro line of portable computers, and the Surface Book 2 is easily the flagship device in that respect. It’s exceedingly sturdy, with a solid, magnesium frame that’s both lightweight and extremely durable. It feels solid, professional, and high-quality — although you would expect as such with its high price tag.

The Surface Pro 6 is an equally well-built device, though with its thinner keyboard it’s not as substantial or as domineering. It could be argued that its new black color scheme for this-generation of Surface Pro is a little more futuristic than the more classic silver of the Surface Book 2, but that’s largely a personal choice.

Since both devices have detachable keyboards, they are each incredibly light during tablet-mode, with the Surface Book 2 somehow coming in ever so slightly lighter at 1.6 pounds (vs. 1.75 pounds), despite its larger 13.5-inch display.

The Surface Book 2 also has slightly greater and more forward-thinking connectivity options, despite being the older of the two devices. It sports a pair of USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 ports (it’s confusing, we know) as well as a headphone jack, two Surface Connect ports, and a full-size SDXC card reader. The kicker though, is that it has a USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 port.

While the Surface Pro 6 comes equipped with its own USB-A 3.0 port, a headphone jack, miniDisplayPort, Surface connect port, and microSDXC card reader, it lacks a USB-C connection.

Performance

Despite the pricing disparity between these two devices, their hardware configurations are closer than you might think. The Surface Pro 6 starts at $900 and has 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and an eighth-generation, quad-core Core i5-8250U CPU. Upgrades include an i5-8350U, or for $1,500 you can get a Core i7-8650U CPU with 256GB of storage. For $2,300 you can net yourself 16GB of RAM and a terabyte of SSD space.

The Surface Book 2 starts at $1,200 and comes with a seventh-generation Core i5-7300U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. That’s a rather weak starting point compared to the Surface Pro 6, considering the 7300U is only a dual-core CPU. However, if you’re willing to spend $2,000, you get the same Core i7-8650U found in the Surface Pro 6, the same 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. Most importantly though, you get an Nvidia GTX 1050 discrete GPU, which is leaps and founds more powerful than anything the Surface Pro has.

Spending $2,500 gets you double the RAM and storage, while the top-end $3,000 configuration nets you a terabyte of SSD space. There are also options for a 15-inch version if you need more screen-space and power, with a GTX 1060 graphics chip on board, though those configurations are more expensive again.

For general computing, the Surface Pro 6 is easily the better machine in terms of price vs. performance, but when it comes to graphical capabilities, the Surface Book 2 is miles ahead of its smaller sibling if you configure it with the dedicated graphics chip.

Feeding off of all that power, the displays in both systems are excellent, each with identical pixel densities of 267 pixels per inch. The only difference is the Surface Book 2 has a slightly higher resolution of 3,000 x 2,000, vs. 2,736 x 1,824 on the Pro 6, to account for its extra inch of screen space.

Portability

Jeremy Kaplan/Digital Trends

Both the Surface Pro 6 and Surface Book 2 are amazingly portable 2-in-1s, especially when in tablet mode. The Surface Book 2 is the larger and heavier device with a keyboard attached, measuring 12.3 x 9.14 x 0.59-inches and weighing 3.62 pounds in the Core i7 configuration. However, when you remove the keyboard and use it as a tablet, it weighs just 1.6 pounds.

The Surface Pro 6, on the other hand, weighs 1.7 pounds without the detachable keyboard and measures  11.5 x 7.9 x 0.33-inches.

Where the Surface Pro 6 is a little easier to handle, it can’t match the Surface Book 2’s battery life. The Pro 6 offers an impressive 14.5 hours of life, according to Microsoft, but the Surface Book 2 is rated at up to 17 hours. One important caveat, though, is battery life in tablet mode. The Surface Book 2 has two batteries — one in the keyboard, and one in the tablet. The one in the tablet is smaller, so battery life in tablet-only mode is only two to three hours.

The Book is better, but there’s a but

Picking a winner out of these two Surface 2-in-1s is difficult, as it’s a case of each being better at certain things. The Surface Pro 6 is more affordable and offers better hardware at that lower price point. But it’s not as sturdy, nor as capable graphically, nor as long-lasting as the Surface Book 2. It’s also lacking that important USB-C port.

With that in mind, the Surface Book 2 is the better piece of hardware. However, it’s also more expensive. If you want a dedicated GPU and a system that works great as both a laptop and tablet, it’s near-perfect. If you don’t need that graphical might, the Surface Pro 6 is very comparable and when it’s available in mid-October.

Overall winner: Surface Book 2

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Give your phone the finger with this creepy, versatile robotic attachment

There was a time in history when we thought that selfie sticks were the weirdest smartphone accessory that could ever exist. Now, an unusual, altogether unsettling new phone attachment will make you reconsider. Called MobiLimb, it’s a robotic finger that plugs into your smartphone and pulls itself along the floor by making beckoning motions. Imagine a new iPhone feature designed by The Evil Dead director Sam Raimi, and you’ll start to get the idea.

“MobiLimb is composed of five small servo motors, enclosed in a 3D-printed shell,” Marc Teyssier, a human-computer interaction researcher who helped create the device, told Digital Trends. “Everything is driven with an Arduino board, and it uses Android OTG connection for power usage and data transmission.”

For a device consisting of relatively simple tech, MobiLimb certainly manages to be creepily lifelike — as well as versatile. Along with dragging its smartphone “body” along a table, it can also wag like a tail, tap on a surface to indicate that a notification has been received, act as a flexible torch, and so on. Heck, if you so wished, it could even stroke your hand while you’re speaking on the phone. Because what better way is there to creep out your fellow commuters on the way home after a busy day’s work?

“The original starting point for this project was human touch for social communication, which is the topic of my Ph.D. thesis,” Teyssier continued. “In real-life communication, we use touch to communicate emotions with others. However, current technology doesn’t use touch as an information channel. This project is just one approach for how we can receive a remote touch. Another aspect of this work is the relationship we are building with our mobile devices. Because they’re always in our hands or pockets, smartphones are becoming companions for humans — yet right now they remain a cold and flat technology.”

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The MobiLimb team created several versions of the finger, including the regular (as regular as it gets, at least) black plastic version, a furry one, and a flesh-like variant created with the help of a visual effects artist. The prototype is set to be shown off at the ACM User Interface Software and Technology conference in Berlin this month.

Don’t expect to be able to buy one any time soon, though. “We have no plans to commercialize it yet,” Teyssier said. “It’s a research project at a prototype phase. Its aim was to explore such devices — and judging by the reactions and comments on the internet, people are not ready to use it just yet.”

A paper describing the project is available to read online.

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Give your phone the finger with this creepy, versatile robotic attachment

There was a time in history when we thought that selfie sticks were the weirdest smartphone accessory that could ever exist. Now, an unusual, altogether unsettling new phone attachment will make you reconsider. Called MobiLimb, it’s a robotic finger that plugs into your smartphone and pulls itself along the floor by making beckoning motions. Imagine a new iPhone feature designed by The Evil Dead director Sam Raimi, and you’ll start to get the idea.

“MobiLimb is composed of five small servo motors, enclosed in a 3D-printed shell,” Marc Teyssier, a human-computer interaction researcher who helped create the device, told Digital Trends. “Everything is driven with an Arduino board, and it uses Android OTG connection for power usage and data transmission.”

For a device consisting of relatively simple tech, MobiLimb certainly manages to be creepily lifelike — as well as versatile. Along with dragging its smartphone “body” along a table, it can also wag like a tail, tap on a surface to indicate that a notification has been received, act as a flexible torch, and so on. Heck, if you so wished, it could even stroke your hand while you’re speaking on the phone. Because what better way is there to creep out your fellow commuters on the way home after a busy day’s work?

“The original starting point for this project was human touch for social communication, which is the topic of my Ph.D. thesis,” Teyssier continued. “In real-life communication, we use touch to communicate emotions with others. However, current technology doesn’t use touch as an information channel. This project is just one approach for how we can receive a remote touch. Another aspect of this work is the relationship we are building with our mobile devices. Because they’re always in our hands or pockets, smartphones are becoming companions for humans — yet right now they remain a cold and flat technology.”

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The MobiLimb team created several versions of the finger, including the regular (as regular as it gets, at least) black plastic version, a furry one, and a flesh-like variant created with the help of a visual effects artist. The prototype is set to be shown off at the ACM User Interface Software and Technology conference in Berlin this month.

Don’t expect to be able to buy one any time soon, though. “We have no plans to commercialize it yet,” Teyssier said. “It’s a research project at a prototype phase. Its aim was to explore such devices — and judging by the reactions and comments on the internet, people are not ready to use it just yet.”

A paper describing the project is available to read online.

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Whitestone Dome Glass Screen Protector for Note 9 review: The clear winner

An expensive solution to a potentially more expensive problem.

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before. Company releases phone claiming that its glass screen is “stronger” and “less prone to scratches and cracks” than the one before. So you believe the claim and forgo buying a screen protector only to drop the phone onto concrete shortly thereafter. Your heart stops and you inhale sharply as you lean down to pick up the face-down phone. You turn it around and it’s a spiderweb of debris, money down the drain.

Or this one. Company releases phone claiming that its glass screen is “stronger” and “less prone to scratches and cracks” than the one before. You don’t believe the claim because it’s still just glass and glass scratches and breaks. You log onto Google, search for “best screen protector for phone” and buy the recommended one. When it arrives in the mail, you eagerly unbox it, follow the vague and poorly-written instructions, and end up with a bunch of frustrating air bubbles that distract you every time you look at the phone.

Both of these scenarios are pretty common. The issue has been exacerbated with the proliferation of curved glass phones — phones like the Galaxy Note 9. Phones that cost way too much money to risk having their screens shatter, or having bubbles under their screen protector.

That’s where Whitestone’s Dome Glass comes in.

Liquid courage

Dome Glass Screen Protector

$45 at Amazon

An accurate install and high-quality part

Whitestone uses a very complicated and involved install process to accomplish what few other accessory makers can do: a clean, bubble-free install on a curved-glass phone. And it works.

Pros:

• Finished product is perfect
• Installation is straightforward
• Glass appears high quality

Cons:

• Installation is very involved
• Very difficult to correct if you make a mistake
• Expensive

Whitestone Dome Glass What’s good

Whitestone approaches a screen protector installation like surgery, and for good reason: I’ve tried installing so-called “professional” and “easy-to-apply” screen protectors on Galaxy devices going back to the S8 and they’ve all turned out badly.

Name a company — Zagg, IQ Shield, Skinomi — and I’ve had a poor experience. They’re not bad products, but the reality is it’s really hard to get a screen protector, especially one made of tempered glass, to adhere properly to a curved screen.

Well, by approaching the installation like a surgery, Whitestone has managed the impossible: a perfect installation. The process is seriously involved: there are about 10 steps you have to follow, and to the letter, or you risk something going wrong.

First, there are all the precautionary measures to ensure that, when the adhesive is eventually applied to the screen, it doesn’t damage the Note 9’s buttons or ports. So you have stickers and absorbing sheets and a full-tilt station to acquaint yourself with.

But once you read the instructions a few times — they’re not translated well, so I made sure to read them more than a few times — it’s pretty straightforward. The tricky part is making sure that, once the adhesive is applied, the tempered glass adheres bubble-free to the screen. Because unlike some film-based screen covers, air bubbles can’t be forced out of this one. If they’re there, they’re there for life.

Note: I highly recommend buying the 2-pack when investing in Whitestone’s screen protector. It saves you from having to salvage a disastrous first attempt (as you’ll read below) and lets you replace an installation if it becomes too scratched.

Once the protector is installed, the cool part begins: using the included UV curing light, which sets the adhesive in under a minute and ensures that touch response is identical to the display in its natural state. It’s USB-powered, so you’ll have to plug it into a nearby AC adapter or battery pack, but you only need it for a couple of minutes.

You pay more not necessarily for a higher-quality screen protector but a better installation that ensures the protector adheres properly.

The best part of Whitestone’s Dome Glass is the fact that, once properly installed, it’s not going anywhere, even on the notoriously finicky rounded edges of the Note 9. To wit, I’ve been using it for over a week now and there’s no evidence of the edge lift that you commonly see in cheaper solutions.

And how is the tempered glass itself? Honestly, it’s fine. It’s a standard 9H-rated glass slab, thick and weighty but likely no higher quality than anything you’d find for a quarter the price. That’s not really what Whitestone is selling here, because a properly-installed curved screen protector is going to be much less likely to crack or dislodge when dropped. The fact that the Dome Glass adheres to the Note 9’s screen uniformly ensures that are no areas of particular weakness. And that is this product’s greatest strength.

Whitestone Dome Glass What’s not good

As far as screen protectors go, there isn’t a lot to complain about here. I did have to throw away my first install because I made an error in my first attempt, letting the adhesive run too far down my phone. The most important thing to know about the Dome Glass is precision: every step needs to be followed perfectly, or you risk ruining the process.

Then there’s the question of cost, and whether you need a screen protector at all. Whitestone makes a good product, but it costs $45 for a single and $60 for a two-pack. (There’s also a $35 “refill” that arrives without the UV curing light). If you want the best, this is it.

But with Gorilla Glass 5, the Note 9 has a pretty tough glass exterior on its own. It may hold up to a few minor falls, and you’ll probably not notice the average scratch against it.

Should you buy it? Absolutely

If you regularly drop your phone, a screen protector is a must. If you regularly drop your Note 9, Whitestone’s Dome Glass is basically your only reliable bet. In this case, you’re not paying for a higher-quality product but for the tools to successfully install it.

4.5
out of 5

Yes, the Note 9 is one of the most expensive phones out there. And yes, its curved display is often more hassle than it’s worth.

But if you want the best, you have to pay for it — and that’s true of the phone and the screen protector.

See at Amazon

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review
• Galaxy Note 9 vs. Note 8
• Where to buy the Galaxy Note 9
• Galaxy Note 9 specifications
• Is the Note 8 still a good buy?
• Join our Galaxy Note 9 forums

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