Does the Samsung Wireless Charger Duo work with the iPhone?

Best answer: Yes, most modern iPhones support the same Qi charging standard as Samsung’s Wireless Charger Duo. You’ll be able to charge relatively quickly as well, reaching up to 7.5 watts.

Amazon: Samsung Wireless Charger Duo ($114)

Does my iPhone even have wireless charging?

If you’ve bought a new iPhone in the last couple of years, there’s a good chance it has wireless charging. In fact, since Apple switched from metal to glass designs on the back of its phones, every new model has supported it — that means the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, X, XS, XS Max, and XR.

If you have an older iPhone, you can still technically get wireless charging working … sort of. Some battery cases, like the Mophie Juice Pack Wireless for the iPhone 7, support Qi wireless charging for their internal battery, which in turn charges your iPhone through its Lightning port — though exactly how fast the case can charge will vary from product to product.

How well does the Wireless Charger Duo work?

Newer iPhones support Qi wireless charging at up to 7.5 watts. That’s the same speed that Samsung’s Wireless Charger Duo maxes out at, and while it’s obviously made to support phones like the Galaxy Note 9, it works just as well with iPhones.

As the name implies, the Wireless Charger Duo can charge up to two devices at once. On the left half of the charger is a vertical stand to prop up your phone, while the other half is flat; you can still charge a second phone on the flat portion, or use it to charge a smartwatch like the new Apple Watch Series 4.

To achieve the full 7.5W fast wireless charging that your iPhone is capable of, you’ll need to be updated to at least iOS 11.2 — though you should probably be on iOS 12 by now anyway. According to Tom’s Guide’s testing, the iPhone X can reach 20% from a dead battery after half an hour through fast wireless charging. That’s even faster than charging with the included wired charger (which reaches 17% after 30 minutes), though it’s still far outpaced by a fast wired connection (50% after 30 minutes).

Make it a double

There are plenty of wireless chargers that work well with the newer line of iPhones, but Samsung’s Wireless Charger Duo makes it easy to charge two phones or a phone and a watch at the same time.

Our pick

Samsung Wireless Charger Duo

$114 at Amazon

The Wireless Charger Duo works just as well with iPhones.

Samsung’s latest wireless charger not only powers two devices at once, but it charges them at up to 7.5 watts, allowing for fast wireless charging on newer devices like the iPhone XS.

Telegram 5 Gains In-App Notifications and Swift Code Rebuild for Faster Speeds

Telegram received a major update today that includes new in-app notifications and a complete rewrite of the encrypted messaging app in Apple’s Swift coding language, resulting in all-round faster performance and better energy efficiency.

On the face of it, the Telegram 5.0 interface looks just like the previous version, but the developers say that rebuilding the app in Swift has made it “faster, sleeker and more battery-friendly,” and has also removed a bunch of persistent bugs.

The speed improvements should be immediately noticeable, particularly when viewing animations in chat threads and syncing messages across multiple devices. At the same time, the new in-app notifications allow users to keep on top of new messages without leaving conversations. From the Telegram blog:

The new expandable in-app notifications will help you focus on whatever you’re doing in the app without having to ignore incoming messages. When a notification arrives, pull it down to open the relevant chat. When you’re done with the interruption, simply close it to get right back to what you were doing.

Elsewhere, the app now includes streaming support for audio files and improved navigation for busy chats, while the app icon message counter has been tweaked so that it no longer shows the number of unread messages in muted chats, which should make it a lot more informative.

Telegram is a free download for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]

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Google Store adds mail-in repair service for Pixel phones

This is never a fun screen to wake up to, but it’s especially painful at 5 AM.

A broken phone is a sad phone, and Google doesn’t want to see any sad Pixels.

The customer support for Google Pixel phones is rivaled by few in the smartphone industry, especially in regards to when something with your phone goes wrong. The 24/7 chat and telephone support lines available for Google Pixel phones are a lifesaver — and I should know! My Google Pixel bricked itself at 5 AM the morning of my twin’s wedding, and a quick chat and call with support had a replacement Pixel on the way home to my apartment before I even left the venue.

That was a warranty replacement, however. If I’d simply dropped my Pixel on the crushed granite driveway, Google Support wouldn’t have been able to help me. If that happens today, though, Google Store’s nifty new repair center would.

Google Support has had mail-in repair/replacement for Google Pixel phones since 2016, and today that program is expanding into the Google Store’s new Repair Center. If your phone breaks outside of warranty, you can open a new repair order and get an estimate for your repair. Once you ship in your phone, Google techs will examine your phone and confirm that the repair and repair costs match their estimate.

If it does match, they’ll charge your credit card, repair your phone and ship it back. If your phone arrives and the damage is more extensive than described, or the repair costs are higher than originally quote, then the Google Store will contact you to go over whether repairs can and will proceed with an updated repair order at the higher cost. Once your phone is repaired, it’s shipped home to you, usually 2 weeks or less from when you shipped it out.

It’s worth noting that Google Store repairs are not the same as Google Support repairs. If your Pixel’s problems seem to be under warranty, you’d still contact Google Support, and extended warranty holders would contact Preferred Care. Google Store’s Repair Center is for phone repairs that you have to pay for. This new option is a welcome repair option, though some may still elect to visit a uBreakiFix instead if they don’t have a spare phone to switch to for 7-10 business days.

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Can’t spare time to brush your teeth? EZ Teethbrush promises to do it 4x faster

Looking after your teeth used to be hella time-consuming. That’s all changing here in 2018, thanks to new technology. Recently we wrote about an app that lets you get your regularly scheduled dental checkup simply by snapping a quick selfie. Now the creators of a new toothbrush, the EZ Teethbrush (sic), want to vastly reduce the amount of time it takes us to brush our teeth every day — by brushing all of them at the same time.

“It’s a sonic-powered ‘teethbrush’ that brushes all of your teeth simultaneously,” creator Craig Mock told Digital Trends. “To use it, simply rinse with water, add your favorite toothpaste, place in your mouth and turn on. Then while holding the handle, you use the modified bass technique recommended by dentists, which is small circular motions. A little back and forth is also required to get the back and front sides of the teeth.”

While the idea of reducing an average tooth clean from two minutes down to 30 seconds might sound unnecessary (after all, who doesn’t have time to spend two minutes on personal hygiene?), it may actually prove to be an important step. Studies show that most people don’t brush for the full two minutes, and a large percentage of the U.S. population only brushes once a day. A device such as this may help.

The EZ Teethbrush looks slightly different to your traditional brush, more closely resembling a retainer or sports mouthpiece, mounted on an electric toothbrush handle. The bacteria-resistant mouthpiece contains rows of ultra-soft silicone bristles, which promise to give your teeth the brushing they deserve — only four times faster.

“One of the dentists [who saw the EZ Teethbrush] was so impressed that he sent us data on abfraction lesions and how he thinks our product is cutting-edge in helping to prevent [them],” Mock continued. “Abfraction lesions affects more than 80 percent of adults and causes recessed gums. Our antimicrobial silicone bristles are softer and safer than traditional bristles, but brush efficiently.”

As ever, we offer our usual warnings about the risks inherent in crowdfunding campaigns. If you’re nonetheless keen to get involved, however, head over to the EZ Teethbrush project page where you can pledge your hard-earned bucks. Prices start at $79 for an EZ Teethbrush in your choice of black or white, along with a wireless charger. Shipping is set to take place in March 2019.

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Art or science? This mesmerizing video shows the development of neurons

Scientific discovery can be an artistic one too — like the intricate pattern of lines in this video that’s actually a zebrafish embryo growing an entire nervous system. Nikon Instruments Inc. unveiled the winners of the Nikon Small World in Motion on Thursday, September 27. A time-lapse of a zebrafish embryo took first place, not just for the intricate beauty of the developing nervous system, but because the work could also help provide more information about Alzheimer’s and other similar diseases.

The first-place video, created by Dr. Elizabeth Haynes and Jiaye “Henry” He, compresses 16 hours of development down to seconds, using a 10x magnification. The researchers captured the zebrafish embryo in 3D high-temporal resolution. While most zebrafish embryos are immobilized in a gel for similar studies, the researchers were able to capture the embryo in water, which is closer to the fish’s natural development.

“I hope people see this video and understand how much we share with other organisms in terms of our development,” Haynes said. “A neuron is a neuron, and it’s really amazing how most of the time development goes right when so much could go wrong. There is so much art occurring within science and nature, and it’s really special to watch.”

Haynes uses the data to study kinesin light chain genes, while He specializes in microscopic technology. The research into kinesin light chain genes could help scientists better understand axon growth, which could, in turn, fuel additional research into neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. 

The second-place prize shows a microscopic colorful pattern — and its’ actually a laser moving through soap. The video, by Dr. Miguel A. Bandres, captures several different physical phenomena, besides just being captivating to watch.

The third-place video captures the intricate movements of a microscopic polychaete worm magnified to 20 and 40 times. While the movements may look like a dance, the researcher says that the polychaete worm is actually digesting, a process that displaces a dorsal blood vessel. The detailed video is raising new questions on the understanding of the microbe.

The competition recognized the top five videos as well as 18 honorable mentions. The complete set of videos can be viewed at the Nikon Small World website.

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Editing mosquito DNA could help wipe out malaria and Zika — here’s how

From creating malaria-resistant mosquitoes to building “photonic fences” able to shoot down the blood-sucking insects with deadly lasers, there are a whole lot of exciting, cutting-edge ways that science is trying to deal with the mosquito problem. Researchers from the United Kingdom’s Imperial College London have developed a new, promising approach to add to the toolset: A “gene drive” which disseminates a genetic modification that stops female mosquitoes from reproducing.

“If this genetic modification can have the ability to incapacitate the female mosquito’s ability to reproduce it could be an incredibly powerful tool to suppress the mosquito population which transmits diseases, such as malaria, Zika, yellow fever, and so on,” Andrea Crisanti, professor of Molecular Parasitology at Imperial, told Digital Trends.

Gene drives are the name given to fragments of DNA that can be inserted into an organism’s chromosomes to trigger certain changes — in this case, stopping mosquitoes from reproducing. In a demonstration involving a caged population of Anopheles gambiae, the group of mosquito species which spread malaria, the gene drive was able to stop further reproduction after seven to 11 generations of mosquitoes. This marks the first time that scientists have been able to use genetic engineering to stop the reproductive capacity of complex organisms in a lab setting.

The gene drive technology alters a section of the doublesex gene, which triggers female development. Introduced in a small number of mosquitoes, the genetic modification is then spread through breeding. Males who carry the gene don’t show any overt changes, while females with just one copy of the modified gene are also outwardly unaffected. It is only when a female with two copies of the gene is born that the population crashes, as the female does not lay eggs or bite.

“With our previously available technology, it has been estimated that it would take something like 40 years to eliminate malaria from the world,” Crisanti continued. “This highlights the need to come up with alternative technologies.”

We’re still a way off from this approach being rolled out in the wild, but research such as this certainly holds an enormous amount of promise for the future.

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

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Exclusive: BMW to introduce ‘safe’ fully autonomous driving by 2021 with iNext

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BMW may be trying to reinvigorate its future lineup with more electrified vehicles, from plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to full-fledged all-electric cars. But the automaker isn’t limiting its new initiatives and R&D to just electrification. BMW also wants to be a leader in developing autonomous driving technology, fitting into the company’s other ethos besides building the ultimate driving machines: technological innovation.

“For us, electric mobility is already the new normal. Therefore, with BMW, we take on the next challenge,” said Klaus Frolich, BMW Group’s chief executive of development during his introduction of the BMW Vision iNext Concept. “With the BMW iNext, you will soon see, we will offer safe, autonomous driving for our customers, by 2021. And our vision is clear, we want to be a leader too.”

Even though most automakers won’t admit it, autonomous driving technology really came into the spotlight when Tesla Motors introduced its semi-autonomous capable “Autopilot” system for its production electric vehicles. Not without controversy, Tesla’s Autopilot and its electric vehicles made electrification and autonomous driving technology the two biggest current trends in the automobile industry.

“We have been researching autonomous driving since 2006. But the challenges to overcome in autonomous driving are enormous,” Frolich continued. “What’s available with our offerings, especially level four and level five, will strongly depend on legal and regulatory premises worldwide. Despite this development, the joy of self-driving remains a part of our brand’s core.”

Over the past few years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration adopted a scaling system to rate how intensive and involving autonomous driving technology is when functioning. Created by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the rating system helps classify autonomous driving tech.

On a scale of zero to five, zero means there’s no autonomous tech and a full need for driver involvement, while five means fully-autonomous and no driver involvement whatsoever. The stages in between represent semi-autonomous driving technology, such as driver and safety assistance systems.

Because the advent of the self-driving car is so revolutionary, it essentially turns the concept of personal and individually driven transportation upside down. Before self-driving cars can takeover as mainstream, there’s a lot that needs to be done from both a political and regulatory standpoint. Additionally, the technology isn’t quite there since the success of self-driving transportation is highly dependent on the development of vehicle infrastructure, which is already a huge struggle in itself.

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Volkswagen partners with Microsoft on connected car platform

Your next Bug might have Windows as a feature — Volkswagen and Microsoft are partnering to create cloud services for VW’s entire fleet, the companies announced on Friday, .

VW anticipates that starting in 2020, more than 5 million new Volkswagen-brand vehicles per year “will be fully connected and will be part of the Internet of Things (IoT).”

VW’s board of directors approved the agreement between the two companies to create the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud, which will be based on Microsoft’s Azure enterprise-grade cloud platform and Azure IoT Edge.

The Volkswagen Automotive Cloud will facilitate the development of new in-car consumer services, telematics, and secure data connections between cars and the cloud, the announcement said. It will power all of VW’s brands, including Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, Seat, Skoda, Bugatti, and Ducati.

The work of creating what VW describes as “one of the largest dedicated automotive industry clouds” will largely take place at a new office VW plans to establish near Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters. VW expects that the workforce of its North American cloud development office will grow to about 300 engineers “in the near future.” Proximity to the Redmond campus will allow Microsoft to provide assistance for hiring, human resources, and consulting as well as access to its expertise in cloud services and team collaboration.

VW becomes the latest major automaker to announce connected car plans based on Microsoft’s Azure technology. Ford has partnered with Microsoft for several years on technology that delivers over-the-air updates to its Sync in-car entertainment/information systems.

Two years ago, BMW announced its BMW Connected app, which runs on the Azure-based BMW Open Mobility Cloud and delivers driving conditions (e.g. weather, traffic, etc.) and other info to cars in 29 countries. Since then, BMW announced models that enable Office and Exchange services.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance also announced a partnership with Microsoft to create Azure-based connected and self-driving car services.

However, Gartner analyst Michael Ramsey says the VW partnership is more ambitious than these other deals in several respects. Most notably, it’s the first that involves worldwide support: Others do not involve vehicles in every single market. “Microsoft is leveraging its global footprint in data centers to offer a single solution,” Ramsey wrote.

Also, VW’s presence in Redmond means “it’s going to work more closely with Microsoft on software development, learning how to do continuous updates of software,” Ramsey said.

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Wear OS’s big redesign is now rolling out to everyone

Only a select few watches won’t get the update.

Almost exactly a month ago, Google unveiled its completely revamped interface for Wear OS. We were told that the new UI would be making its way to watches at some point in September, and it looks like Google’s following through on its word as the update is now rolling out to everyone.

The update is rolling out to users as Wear OS 2.1, and as a quick reminder, here are the new gestures you’ll want to remember:

• Swiping up shows your notifications
• A swipe down reveals quick settings
• Google Fit is accessed with a swipe to the left
• You can get to Google Assistant by swiping to the right

The Google Fit that’s present is the vastly-upgraded version that was also announced last month, and with the new Google Assistant, you’ll now see a feed of information along with the regular voice commands (such as the weather, upcoming events, etc.).

Save for the LG G Watch, Samsung Gear Live, 2014 Moto 360, Sony Smartwatch 3, and the first Asus ZenWatch, every single Wear OS device will receive the new software. We aren’t sure how long it’ll take for each device to be updated, but you can always do a manual check on your watch by going to Settings -> System -> About -> System Updates.

Are you looking forward to Wear OS 2.1?

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How to play the Fallout 76 Beta on your PlayStation 4

Hop into Fallout 76 before everyone else and get a taste of the action.

With Bethesda Game Studio’s first foray into the world of online multiplayer with Fallout 76, the studio is ensuring that its servers can handle it beforehand. Bethesda just announced that the B.E.T.A. (Break-It Early Test Application) will arrive on PlayStation 4 on October 30, just a couple of short weeks before the game’s worldwide launch on November 14.

If you’re a bit confused as to how you can access the Beta and begin your journey through the ruins of West Virginia, here’s how.

Note: This does not appear to be an Open Beta, and as such you will be required to pre-order Fallout 76 in order to participate. Bethesda has not stated if they will open the Beta to everyone at another date.

If you pre-ordered Fallout 76 digitally on console, search for Fallout 76 Beta in the store once it’s live to download it.

If you pre-ordered physical or digital editions through other retailers, you’ll need to follow a few steps before you can jump in.

Create or log-in to your Bethesda.net account.
Select your profile and choose Redeem Code from the drop-down menu.
Enter the code that you received with your receipt after purchase.
Once the Beta is live on October 30, select your profile and choose Transaction History from the drop-down menu.
With the Beta code provided on your Transaction History page, redeem it on your PS4 to start downloading.

Still haven’t pre-ordered Fallout 76? You may have missed out on the Power Armor Edition, but you can still purchase the Standard Edition or Tricentennial Edition, which includes several bonus in-game items.

See Standard Edition at Amazon
See Tricentennial Edition at Amazon

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