These are the best drives for expanding the NVIDIA Shield TV’s storage

The NVIDIA Shield TV is the best Android streaming box that money can buy in 2018, and there are savings to be had for opting for the 16GB Shield TV — but if that doesn’t sound like enough storage space for your media needs, you can make use of the NVIDIA Shield TV’s USB ports and mount an external storage device to expand your available storage.

Barely there at all

SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive

If you’re a stickler for conserving space in your home entertainment setup, you’ll want to get this ultra slim flash drive from SanDisk. It’s available in your choice of storage size, but you’re best off going with the 128GB. The 64GB drive for just $17 is your next-best value.

$31 at Amazon

Durable and reliable

Samsung BAR USB 3.0 Flash Drive

Samsung’s BAR flash drive is made from metal and designed with a built-in key ring. These sleek and portable flash drives are perfect for use with your Shield and beyond. We’ve linked below to the 128GB version, but you’ll also find the same style available with 32GB ($10) and 64GB ($17) on the product page.

$28 at Amazon

NVIDIA approved

SanDisk Extreme Pro USB 3.1 Solid State Flash Drive

The SanDisk Extreme Pro is one of the few flash drives that NVIDIA specifically recommends for use with the NVIDIA Shield. The solid-state performance here will give you “extreme” read/write speeds, which is ideal for streaming media. The Shield’s max capacity for external storage is capped at 128GB, and that’s the drive we’ll recommend here — although for $62 you might be best off considering some of the other options on our list.

$62 at Amazon

The biggest approved by NVIDIA

SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drive

With a 256GB model listed on the NVIDIA support site, the SanDisk Ultra offers the biggest storage option for your NVIDIA Shield. You can get all the storage you’re likely to need for just $58 or opt for the 128GB drive for $28.

$58 at Amazon

These are the best drives whether you plan to use them to replace the Shield’s 16GB hard drive or use it to download content from your PC files to your living room TV. If you’re looking to max out your internal storage, we’d recommend the 256GB SanDisk Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drive.

Do note that if you decide to mount and use a USB drive as internal storage for your NVIDIA Shield, it will format the drive and wipe it clean and you will need to reformat again to use it with a different device. Alternatively, NVIDIA recommends selecting the “removable storage” option if you’re using the drive for transferring or watching media content. We’d recommend the 128GB SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive for its slim profile and great price.

Nerf blasters, Bluetooth speakers, and more are discounted today

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

There’s never a shortage of deals available, but sorting through all of them can be difficult at times. We’ve handpicked all the best tech, and everyday essentials discounts that you can take advantage of right now and brought them to one central location. From Nerf blasters to everyday backpacks, these are today’s best deals.

Tech Deals

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Everyday Essentials

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

Where to try an Oculus Go before you buy

If you’re looking to buy an Oculus Go, but you’ve never tried out virtual reality (VR) before, you might want to give it a try before you buy to see if it’s for you. We’ve got plenty of virtual reality experts and fans here at Android Central, and we want to help you get your hands on this device so you can have fun in a whole new world, or at least figure out if you shouldn’t.

Products used in this guide

• Amazon: Oculus Go Headset ($199)

Trying out the Oculus Go at Best Buy

Go to Best Buy’s Website

Click “Find Oculus Go and Rift demos”

Select your state from the dropdown menu.

Another dropdown will appear listing counties that have available demos near you. Choose the closest one!

A pop-up box will show you all the information you need to know.

There you have it, the first option of where you can try out the Oculus Go before you buy (just in case your friends don’t have one). From the information given to you from the Best Buy website, you’ll even be able to call the store, send an email, or leave a review on your experiences. The best part? If you love the headset, you can pick it up right from the store before you leave!

Trying out the Oculus Go at a local gaming convention

Check on Google to see if there is a gaming or VR convention going on near you.

Go to the conventions website and check out the list of vendors that will be available.

Go mingle with other virtual reality fans!

Here at Android Central, we got to try out the Oculus Go at GDC (Games Developer Conference) 2018. It was a pleasant surprise walking into the gaming hall and it’s obviously convenient to have it ready to demo in a professional setting. Who knows, you might find a gaming store or convention near you willing to let you try out the product! Calling around for questions never hurt anybody.

Our top equipment picks

When it comes to portable virtual reality, the Oculus Go is definitely the headset that has my vote. With the amazing resolution and all of the games it has available, it’s hard to not want one for yourself.

Standalone Virtual Reality

Oculus Go

$199 at Amazon

Revolutionizing virtual reality

With two different options of memory, you can go for the 32GB for $199, or the 64GB for $50 more. The Oculus Go is a completely portable headset to bring all your favorite VR games and experiences wherever you want.

Most of us have wanted to try out virtual reality for the longest time. While other headsets like the PlayStation VR are phenomenal, they all require a console (or a computer) to run them. So, what if you don’t have a PlayStation 4, or a decent computer? Well, that’s where the Oculus Go comes in. The only thing you need to set it up is your phone, and after that, it’s a completely standalone headset. Go and share your virtual experience with your friends!

Amazon Alexa’s app redesign makes navigating your smart home easier

This is happy. Alexa, do not play Despacito.

With Amazon’s huge lineup of smart devices, all new generations coming out, and new toolkits giving developers even more freedom to experiment, the Alexa voice assistant has firmly entrenched herself as one of the top voice control smart home systems around. The primary way to control Alexa, outside of yelling at her (be nice!), is through the free app. Now that app is getting a face-lift and it’s looking better than ever.

If you haven’t gotten the update yet, it is rolling out to iOS and Android devices worldwide. Check your app store and give it an update. Outside of design and color, one of the functional changes includes a simpler way to control all your smart devices. You’ll now see your smart devices grouped by room with all the individual devices listed below it. Practically, this eliminates at least one click you’d have to take in the current edition of the app, making it easier to use.

Amazon is on fire these days (literally… because of the new Fire TV Stick 4K). They’ve got all new ways to watch Thursday Night Football, a DVR called the Recast that wants to be the new way cord cutters watch TV, and all kinds of bundles on the newest generations of Amazon devices designed to save you money. A redesigned Alexa app is just the icing on the smart home cake.

Canada Daily Deals: Sous vide cookers, ILIFE Robo Vacuums, 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 that include big discounts on sous vide precision cookers, ILIFE Robotic Vacuum Cleaners, Amazon Echo Dots, Nintendo Switch pre-release games, and much more!

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

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

Should you get Google Wifi or Plume for your mesh system?

We’re a virtual company made up of tech experts from across the globe. We have a lot of connected devices in our homes, and we do our best to keep our home networks working in tip-top shape.

Google Wifi

No nonsense

$130+ at Amazon

Pros

• Easy installation.
• Can be placed on a shelf or desk.

Cons

• Higher upfront costs.
• Less advanced features available.

Google’s Wifi system comes in single and three packs, and it’s super easy to add more pieces as you expand your home.

Plume

Super subscription

$239+ at Plume

Pros

• Lower upfront costs.
• Plugs right into a power outlet.

Cons

• Restricted to where you have power outlets.
• Ongoing subscription fees for some features.

Plume’s model is a bit more interesting in that the hardware is cheaper, but users have to pay for a subscription for some features. Depending on exactly what features you want, that could save you some money.

While they’re priced a bit differently, both Google Wifi and Plume are great ways to get better Wi-Fi coverage in your home.

Features

How do they compare?

The most obvious difference between the two systems is the hardware. Plume plugs directly into a power outlet, while Google Wifi includes a USB-C power cable (and can work with most third-party cables). Which one of those is better depends on the layout of your house: plugging a router directly into the power outlet is easier, but being able to put it on the shelf will keep it from getting knocked around by pets and kids.

The next obvious difference is in the pricing: Google Wifi starts at $130 (or sometimes on sale for $100) for a single router and $300 for a three-pack. The Plume routers are cheaper by themselves, but you can’t buy them without also buying a subscription, especially if you want certain features. The cheapest way to get started is $99, which gets you three routers and a year of service.

Lifetime membership is a one-time $200 fee, which comes to $239 if you haven’t bought any Plume routers yet. That’s still cheaper than the Google Wifi three-pack, and you can still expand it with new routers if you move to a bigger home. If you stop paying the subscription, your Plume routers still work, still get updates, still allow you to change your network name and password, but you don’t get access to some advanced features.

Both Google Wifi and Plume support Ethernet backhaul, so you can have the mesh routers communicate over a wire to make your network that much more stable. The smaller Plume only has one Ethernet port though, so it can’t be used for both connecting to one of your devices and for Ethernet backhaul.

These are both great options, so pick the best to match your home layout.

They do have a lot in common though. Both support automatic updates, so your network is always safe as can be. Neither has a USB port for connecting a printer, hard drive, or other devices to your network. Features like IPv6 support, custom DNS, and DHCP and UPnP support are present for both. Both offer smartphone applications for iOS and Android so you can check on your network from anywhere in the world.

They also both include family controls to keep your child’s device locked down after certain hours, but Plume only allows this if you’ve paid for a subscription. Same with guest network support, but that’s a bit more granular. Plume allows you to have a guest network, but devices in your main network — say, a Sonos speaker you want your guest to be able to use — can still talk to devices on the guest side.

In the end, neither system is better or worse than the other. The one you choose should be based on the layout of your home, and whether you want to pay the subscription for extra features.

Google Wifi

No nonsense.

$300 at Amazon

No dealing with subscriptions.

Google Wifi makes it super easy to get started on your mesh system, and there are no ongoing fees. The separate power cable gives you a bit more freedom when placing each router.

Plume

Super subscription

Cheaper to get started that Google’s system.

$239 at Plume

Plume’s subscription model may seem like a bad thing, but even with a lifetime membership, it can end up being less expensive than Google’s system.

MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Black Leather Apple Watch Band From Southern Straps

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with Southern Straps to give MacRumors readers a chance to win one of the company’s black leather Apple Watch bands.

Southern Straps offers a range of high-quality leather and colored nylon Apple Watch bands on its website. The black leather band is crafted from a single piece of supple, full grain Italian leather, which the company says has not been sanded, buffed, or snuffed, leaving it with an attractive, unblemished finish.

To ensure a deep, long lasting black, the strap has been dyed with vegetable dye and it features hand stitching with waxed cord. All of Southern Straps’ leather bands feature a two-year warranty against manufacturing damage.

The black leather band fits all Apple Watch models, including the new Apple Watch Series 4 models. Southern Straps offers its leather bands with lugs to match all Apple Watch finishes, including black, silver, and gold.

Southern Straps’ leather bands are reasonably priced at $79, but we have 15 to give away to MacRumors readers. To enter to win our giveaway, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (October 5) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on October 12. The winners will be chosen randomly on October 12 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Tag: giveaway
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Apple’s Former Legal Chief Bruce Sewell Says FBI ‘Never Heard’ of Supermicro Allegations Last Year

Apple’s efforts to thoroughly deny this week’s bombshell Bloomberg Businessweek report now extend to a former top executive.

Apple’s former general counsel Bruce Sewell
Apple’s recently retired general counsel Bruce Sewell told Reuters he called the FBI’s then-general counsel James Baker last year after being told by Bloomberg of an open investigation into Supermicro, and was told that nobody at the federal law enforcement agency knows what the story is about.

“I got on the phone with him personally and said, ‘Do you know anything about this?,” Sewell said of his conversation with Baker, reports Reuters. “He said, ‘I’ve never heard of this, but give me 24 hours to make sure.’ He called me back 24 hours later and said ‘Nobody here knows what this story is about.’”

Sewell’s comments are consistent with a statement Apple shared with Bloomberg Businessweek and on its Newsroom on Thursday:

On this we can be very clear: Apple has never found malicious chips, “hardware manipulations” or vulnerabilities purposely planted in any server. Apple never had any contact with the FBI or any other agency about such an incident. We are not aware of any investigation by the FBI, nor are our contacts in law enforcement.

Also from the Apple Newsroom:

No one from Apple ever reached out to the FBI about anything like this, and we have never heard from the FBI about an investigation of this kind — much less tried to restrict it.

Apple later clarified that it is not under any kind of gag order or other confidentiality obligations after speculation mounted.

Amazon and Supermicro have also refuted the Bloomberg Businessweek report, with the latter company claiming it has “never been contacted by any government agencies either domestic or foreign regarding the alleged claims.”

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has also backed Apple’s and Amazon’s denials of the Bloomberg Businessweek report, claiming Chinese spies planted tiny chips the size of a pencil tip on server motherboards manufactured by Supermicro, which both Apple and Amazon used at one time in their data centers.

“We are aware of the media reports but at this stage have no reason to doubt the detailed assessments made by AWS and Apple,” the agency, a unit of the GCHQ, said in a statement provided to Reuters today.

“The NCSC engages confidentially with security researchers and urges anybody with credible intelligence about these reports to contact us.”

Bloomberg Businessweek yesterday reported that Apple discovered the suspicious microchips around May 2015, after detecting odd network activity and firmware problems. Two senior Apple insiders were cited as saying the company reported the incident to the FBI, but kept details tightly held.

The insiders cited in the report said in the summer of 2015, a few weeks after Apple identified the malicious chips, the company started removing all Supermicro servers from its data centers. Every one of the 7,000 or so Supermicro servers was replaced in a matter of weeks, according to one of the insiders.

One government official cited in the Bloomberg Businessweek report said China’s goal was “long-term access to high-value corporate secrets and sensitive government networks.” No consumer data is known to have been stolen, the report added, but the extent of the alleged attack appears to be unclear.

At this point, there is a clear divide between what Bloomberg is reporting and the denials from Apple, Amazon, and Supermicro. In the coming days, additional information will hopefully provide some clarity about the matter.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: China, Bruce Sewell
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AnandTech Calls A12 Bionic in iPhone XS ‘Just Margins Off’ Best Desktop CPUs in New Review

AnandTech, known for in-depth reviews of new Apple products, today published a lengthy review of the iPhone XS and XS Max, Apple’s newest flagship iPhones.

AnandTech’s review takes a deep dive into the A12 chip in the two smartphones, which is the first commercially available 7nm silicon.

Image of A12 SoC via TechInsights with labeling by AnandTech
According to AnandTech, the A12 chip features a major revamp of the neural accelerator, a redesigned system cache that features the “biggest change since its introduction in the A7,” significant changes to the CPU core, and memory compression for the GPU, all of which has led to impressive performance improvements.

Based on SPECint2006 benchmarking, the A12 performed an average of 24 percent better than the A11 in the previous-generation devices. When it comes to power efficiency, the A12 improved by 12 percent, but with memory heavy workloads, power consumption was up, for an average power usage of ~3.36W on the A11 to 3.64W on the A12.

SPECfp benchmarking saw average performance gains of 28 percent, and again, workloads with major improvements also resulted in increased power consumption.

AnandTech’s benchmarking tests suggest that the A12’s Vortex cores and architectural improvements offer a “much higher performance advantage than Apple’s marketing materials promote.” Apple’s A12 beat the best Android SoCs both in performance and power efficiency.

The contrast to the best Android SoCs have to offer is extremely stark – both in terms of performance as well as in power efficiency. Apple’s SoCs have better energy efficiency than all recent Android SoCs while having a nearly 2x performance advantage. I wouldn’t be surprised that if we were to normalise for energy used, Apple would have a 3x performance efficiency lead.

AnandTech says that it’s “quite astonishing” how close the A12 and the previous-generation A11 are to desktop CPUs, with “very small margins until Apple’s mobile SoCs outperform the fastest desktop CPUs in terms of ST performance.”

As part of the review, AnandTech also offered a look at how Apple has improved performance in older devices by tweaking scaling performance. The A9 in the iPhone 6s, for example, took 435ms for the CPU to reach maximum frequency, but that time was cut to 80ms in iOS 12 for a “great boost to performance in shorter interactive workloads.”

Similar improvements were made to the A10 (going from a 400ms ramp up time to 210ms), but there was little change to the A11.

All in all, AnandTech said the iPhone XS and XS Max are a “big shift” for Apple’s lineup with a “beast of an SoC” that’s offering performance improvements of up to 40 percent.

Apple’s marketing department was really underselling the improvements here by just quoting 15% – a lot of workloads will be seeing performance improvements I estimate to be around 40%, with even greater improvements in some corner-cases. Apple’s CPU have gotten so performant now, that we’re just margins off the best desktop CPUs; it will be interesting to see how the coming years evolve, and what this means for Apple’s non-mobile products.

The full iPhone XS and XS Max review from AnandTech is well worth checking out for those who would like to get a deeper technical look at the components inside the two new devices. It goes into much greater detail on the CPU and GPU in the iPhone XS and XS Max, while also taking a look at the camera, battery, display, and other components.

Related Roundup: iPhone XSBuyer’s Guide: iPhone XS (Buy Now)
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Garmin listens to feedback, adds Spotify to Fenix 5 Plus Series watch

Garmin is rolling out Spotify support for its Fenix 5 Plus series of GPS multi-sport GPS watches, the company announced Wednesday, October 3 at a New York City event. Fenix owners can visit the online Connect IQ app store and download the Spotify app immediately. The addition of Spotify is a huge win for the smartwatch maker, which is pushing music as one of the flagship features of its Fenix 5 line of fitness trackers.

Designed for serious athlete and adventurers, the Fenix 5 Plus series launched earlier this year with integrated music, but the platform supported only iHeartRadio and Deezer. Spotify was noticeably absent — an omission we noted in our recent review of the Fenix 5X Plus, and one that spurned consumers to band together and voice their complaints. Garmin was silent and would not say if or when the popular music service would be added to its devices. The announcement is a pleasant surprise for all Fenix 5 Plus series owners.

Garmin Fenix 5 Plus owners now can choose their favorite playlists and sync those tracks using the phone’s Wi-Fi connection. The watch ships with 16GB of onboard storage so there is plenty of room to store multiple playlists for offline listening. The new feature requires a Spotify premium account, but Garmin and Spotify are partnering to offer a free trial premium account for Garmin owners.

After the playlists have synced, Garmin watch owners can listen to their music offline through the new Spotify app. They will be able to choose between different playlists and move through the tracks using the controls on the watch. These music controls are available from the music data screen when exercising and from the music widget anytime.

The new Spotify app is available now to download from the Garmin Connect IQ app store. It is compatible with the Fenix 5S Plus, the Fenix 5 Plus, and the Fenix 5X Plus. Unfortunately, Spotify is not yet available for the company’s other music-enabled watches. Both the Garmin Forerunner 645 and the Vivoactvie 3 Music allows owners to listen to offline playlists from Deezer and iHeartRadio. Now that the gates are open for Spotify on the Fenix models, support for the Forerunner and Vivoactive hopefully is not too far behind.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Garmin’s fitness wearables now support Deezer music streaming app
• Apple Music vs. Spotify
• Garmin Fenix 5X Plus review
• Spotify hits 83 million paid users as the race with Apple Music rocks on
• Jam out in style with the 25 best playlists on Spotify