Best Battery Backup for Oculus Go

Keep it charged up.

With the Oculus Go finally out, there are many things to keep in mind when you’re playing it on the go. One of the main concerns is how to keep the battery full when playing it since there’s not a whole lot you can do when you’re on the move.

These are the best options for battery backups you can get for your Oculus Go.

• Best overall
• Best value
• Best money seller

Best Overall: RAVPower Portable Power Bank

RAVPower is a great option for chargers if you don’t mind spending extra money on it. This charger offers 22000 mAh with a micro USB charger and two USB charging cables. It also comes with three USB ports for you to charge any of your devices from.

It’s a great charger for when you’re going on a long trip if you don’t mind spending $41.99 on it.

See at Amazon.

Why the RAVPower is the best

The average portable charger goes for anywhere from 30-50 dollars. Not only is the RAVPower directly in the middle of that average, but it comes with those two added bonuses. Yeah, we’re talking about the charging cables. On Amazon, you can get a two pack of micro USB chargers for about $8. When you add that value to the price you’re paying for your basically getting three products for the price of one.

Then let’s talk about the mAh on it. 22000 mAh is a really good amount of power for once device. This could charge a phone almost 4 times, meaning you can probably charge your Oculus Go 2-3 times before this device needs to be recharged. This could give you a total of almost 9 hours of gameplay without having to take the headset off.

Best value: Keluoer Ultra Slim

This charger has 20000 mAh with a micro USB input for you to charge it up. It includes two USB ports for you to charge two devices at once and it’s slim enough to fit into your pocket. This makes it perfect for plugging in your Oculus Go and then slipping it into your shirt pocket.

For $16.99, it’s a great charger for an even better price.

Bottom line: For less than half the price you could get just a slightly smaller charge, and one less USB port, then the RAV offers. It doesn’t come with the spare chargers so if none of those things are important to you then this is the choice to go for.

See at Amazon.

Best money saver: TONV Power Bank

With 10000 mAh, two inputs and two outputs, this charger is great for your Oculus Go. With two inputs for charging you can get it to full power even faster for your on-the-go moments.

It’s a great charger and not a bad deal for $10.99.

Bottom line: If you’re looking for a quick charge this will certainly double your battery life. You probably won’t get more than a charge and a half with this on the Oculus Go, though. It does charge in half the time, but you have to consider how much time you’ll have around a wall outlet.

See at Amazon.

Update July 2018: We’ve updated this article with even better portable chargers for you to take a look at. Not just that, but some of the prices have even gone down. So make sure you check out those sweet prices!

Oculus Go

• A parent’s guide to Oculus Go
• Oculus Go vs. Lenovo Mirage Solo
• Best Gamepad for Oculus Go
• Best Battery Backup for Oculus Go

Oculus Go 32GB
Oculus Go 64GB

AKG K52 Headphones review: Studio headphones on the cheap

Just needs a removable cable.

A few days after this review is published, I’ll be playing guitar and singing at my first solo show in two years. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been buying equipment like amplifiers, a microphone and stand, and a music stand. I also wanted some studio headphones to hear my amplifier effects without disrupting my neighbors. I also wanted neutral headphones around for when I get around to recording some music I’ve written, and some lightweight headphones for long listening sessions.

One of the record stores I visit frequently has a record player with headphones attached to an amplifier for customers to sample records on. While writing in there one day, I borrowed the headphones to hear how they sound and how comfortable. Those headphones were the AKG K52, and I immediately fell in love with them.

AKG K52 Headphones

Price: $65

Bottom line: These are headphones that sound great with neutral sound, featherlight weight, and are relatively inexpensive.

The Good

• Hardly any bulk or weight, allowing for super long listening sessions
• Neutral sound
• Distraction-free listening
• Long cable is great for studio use

The Bad

• Cable is non-replaceable and annoyingly long for desk use
• Wired only
• Only one color option

See at Amazon

AKG K52 Headphones What I like

I’ll get this right out of the way: these are not Bluetooth headphones. If that’s a deal breaker for you, that’s entirely understandable and you’d be better served by a different pair of headphones. I didn’t buy these to be my on-the-go headphones, they’re for home studio use and to keep me focused during long writing sessions at my desk.

And they serve both of those purposes well. Not having a Bluetooth radio, microphones, and battery makes the headphones that much lighter, which makes them that much more comfortable for wearing for hours on end. The longest I’ve worn these headphones is eight hours — with bathroom breaks — and my ears and the top of my head didn’t feel any discomfort by the end of that day. These are a full ounce lighter than the already light Bose QC35 II headphones, and you can feel the difference.

The 3.5mm cable is permanently attached to the headphones — more on that later — and it’s sufficiently long enough to plug into my amplifier and let me move around with my guitar. It’s a bit annoying to have the long cable running down my back, but an annoyingly long cable is better than a short cable that would make my equipment fall over. AKG includes a 3.5mm-to-6.35mm adapter in the box for plugging the headphones into an amplifier.

But the best part about these headphones — and the reason I specifically use them over some wired gaming headsets I already owned — is their neutral sound. Almost every wireless pair of headphones — and even other wired headsets — has some sort of tuning built in to make music sound “better” than competing headphones. I don’t mind this since some manufacturers’ definition of “better” matches my definition of “better”, but for hearing myself play and sing I don’t want any unnecessary effects or tuning.

AKG K52 Headphones What I don’t like

My main complaints with these headphones come down to the 3.5mm cable being permanently attached to the headphones. The long cable is excellent when I’m playing guitar and singing, but much more annoying when I’m just listening to music at my desk. I usually have the cable wrapped up and velcroed to keep it tidy, but that’s not great for the long-term health of the cable.

And because the cable’s permanently attached, ruining the cable will ruin the headphones as well. This is made more frustrating by the fact that AKG sells other headphones at a similar price that includes a removable (though non-standard) cable.

Finally, while I’m sure most musicians would be fine with the plain black style — as am I — it’d be great to see more color options.

AKG K52 Headphones Should you buy them?

Maybe. There are definitely better studio headphones that feature a wider soundstage, but if you don’t want to spend too much money on your home studio or desk headphones, these are a great option. I purchased my set for $30 at Guitar Center during their Fourth of July sale, and if you can find a similar bargain go for it.

At full price, things get a little dicey. I would have gone for the AKG’s K240 solely for the removable cable, and the semi-open back design would have meant a wider soundstage for hearing myself play. But that also means my music would leak out, disturbing other people nearby. Each pair of headphones has merits and detractions.

4
out of 5

Even at full price, these are a great pair of headphones for anyone who wants an inexpensive pair of headphones for their desk or home studio.

See at Amazon

A smart TiVo, drones, audiobooks, and more are all discounted today

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 a TiVo and Echo bundle, the Tello quadcopter, Audible audiobooks, and more! Most of these prices will be gone when the day ends, so don’t miss your chance to save big!

View the rest of the deals

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!

Tim Cook to Speak at LOVELOUD Festival This Saturday

Apple CEO Tim Cook will speak at the second annual LOVELOUD festival at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City this Saturday. He will then introduce the band Imagine Dragons for a live performance on stage.

LOVELOUD was founded in 2017 by Dan Reynolds, the lead singer of Imagine Dragons, to “help ignite the relevant and vital conversation of what it means to unconditionally love, understand, accept, and support LGBTQ+ youth in an effort to keep families together,” according to the foundation’s website.

“Tim Cook joining us in Utah for LOVELOUD sends a clear message to LGBTQ youth that they have unlimited potential to achieve their dreams,” said Reynolds. “Tim is an unwavering advocate for human rights and equality, and we’re thrilled he’ll be joining our powerful line-up of speakers and performers.”

Other guest speakers will include actor Alfonso Ribeiro, dancer Julianne Hough, Ellen Show star Kalen Allen, Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara, Grammy-nominated songwriter Justin Tranter, musician WRABEL, singer Mary Lambert, comic Dana Goldberg, singer-songwriters VINCINT & Parson James, and more.

Other performers will include Zedd, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, Grace Vanderwaal, and Neon Trees’ Tyler Glenn. Nationally touring stand-up comedian Cameron Esposito will also perform and emcee the day’s festivities.

LOVELOUD tickets are available for purchase online, while AT&T will be live streaming the entire event on Twitter. The non-profit LOVELOUD Foundation says proceeds from this year’s event will be donated to LGBTQ+ organizations, including Encircle, the Tegan and Sara Foundation, and the Trevor Project.

The festival is scheduled for Saturday, July 28, with doors open at 2 p.m. local time, and music beginning at 3:30 p.m. local time.

Apple as a company has shown its support for the LGBTQ community over the years by participating in Pride parades around the world, introducing Pride-themed Apple Watch bands, and supporting LGBTQ rights and laws.

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.

Tag: Tim Cook
Discuss this article in our forums

How to Use the New Effects Camera in Messages

In iOS 12, Apple added a new Effects camera in Messages that’s similar to the live camera features in Snapchat and Instagram, allowing you to take a photo in the Messages app and then edit it with stickers, filters, text, and more.

On devices with a TrueDepth camera system, the Effects camera even works with Memoji and Animoji, allowing you to overlay cartoon emoji heads over your own head.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.

Accessing the Effects Camera

The Effects camera lives in the Messages app, and Apple’s made it easy to locate.

Open the Messages app.
Choose a conversation with someone.
Tap on the Camera icon next to the App Store icon.
Make sure you’re in either standard Photo or Video mode.
To get to the available Effects, tap on the small star-shaped icon to the left of the shutter button.
The Camera in the Messages app is located in the same place that it was in iOS 11, but instead of opening up a smaller camera window that also provides access to your already-captured photos, it is a full-screen camera complete with editing tools.

To get to photos you’ve already taken in the Messages app, you need to open up the app drawer by tapping on the App Store “A” icon and then choosing the Photos icon.

Available Effects Camera Features

There are multiple tools for editing your photos, all of which are displayed in a bar above the camera shutter, organized by icon. Here are the options, in the order that you’ll see them in the app.

Animoji/Memoji (TrueDepth devices and front-facing camera only)
Filters
Text
Shapes
Sticker packs
After the four main sections, every other icon represents a different sticker pack that you have installed on your device.

All of these options work in photo and video mode with both the rear and front-facing cameras, with the exception of Animoji and Memoji, which only work with the front-facing camera.

You cannot use the Effects camera with slo-mo videos, portrait mode photos, square-shaped photos, or panoramas, but you can access these types of images in the Messages camera.

Animoji and Memoji

With the Animoji and Memoji filters, you can choose an Animoji or a previously created Memoji that will be displayed over your own face when using the front-facing camera of a device with a TrueDepth camera system.

The Memoji and Animoji filter looks similar to what you might expect from a Snapchat filter, and because it uses the TrueDepth system, the Animoji and Memoji stay lined up with your head while you move and talk, mimicking your facial expressions just like when you use Animoji in Messages.

Filters

There are more than a dozen filters you can add to your photos or videos, which display in realtime. The filter section of the Effects Camera is accessed by tapping on the icon that looks like three RBG dots.

There are standard filters for making a photo or video warmer or cooler, several black and white filters, and a selection of fun filters like watercolor, ink, and comic book, that give you a sketched or painted look.

Text

Text can be added to a photo or video by tapping on the icon that looks like “Aa,” with plain text, text in bubbles, and text in shapes as available options.

Pick the text design that you want and then type in your message. After you tap “Done,” you can resize the text with pinch gestures.

If you choose the icon that looks like a smiley face, you can add any emoji that you want to the photo or the video, and resize it just like standard text.

Shapes

With the Shapes tool, you can insert a variety of shapes in a sketched style, with options that include arrows, fireworks, circles, checkmarks, and squiggles.

There are no options to draw your own shapes, so you can only use the stock options. Shapes are static when used in photos, but will animate when used in videos.

Shapes can be resized with pinch gestures and relocated by placing a finger on the shape and dragging it to a new location.

Stickers

After the four available built-in options, all of the additional icons in the Effects camera will be the sticker packs that you have installed. These sticker packs will vary based on your own downloads and apps, and it will look different for everyone.

Like Text and Shape Effects, stickers can be placed anywhere on the photo or video and resized using pinch gestures. You can drag the sticker anywhere on the photo and reposition it using the same gestures you would use to put stickers within iMessages.

For stickers that animate, you will see the animations when using them in video mode, but there are no animations in photo mode.

New sticker packs for use with the Effects camera can be downloaded from the Messages App Store using these directions:

Open the Messages app.
Tap on the gray App Store Icon to make sure the app drawer is open.
With the app drawer open, tap on the blue App Store logo to open up the App Store.
From here, you can browse through popular stickers, search for sticker packs, or find games and apps that come with stickers you can use with the camera.Some of the sticker packs are free, while others are available for $0.99 to $1.99 on average.

Stacking Effects

All of the different effects can be stacked up, so you can combine multiple options. You can use filters with Animoji, for example, and also decorate photos and videos with stickers.

To use multiple effects, select your first option, such as Animoji, and choose what you want to apply. From there, tap the “X” in the upper right corner to go back to the Effects camera options and you can choose another category.

Using this method, you can stack up all of the effects if desired, using filters, stickers, shapes, and text with Animoji and Memoji options.

Make sure not to tap the Effects camera again while applying your different filters and effects because when you tap it, it will clear all of your set options.

Removing Effects

To remove an Animoji or Memoji filter, tap on the Animoji icon and then tap on the big “X” all the way at the left of Animoji/Memoji list.

To remove a photo filter, open up the filter menu and then scroll over to the first option, which is “Original” and select it.

To remove text, stickers, or shapes, tap the item you want to remove in the photo or video field and then tap the “X” to delete it.

If you want to remove all of the effects that you’ve put in place at once, tap the Effects icon again to go back to the main camera interface. This clears all of your settings, and if you tap the Effects camera icon again, you’ll have a blank slate to work with.

Related Roundup: iOS 12
Discuss this article in our forums

Alfre Woodard Joins Cast of Apple’s Upcoming Futuristic Drama Series ‘See’

Apple’s upcoming futuristic drama series “See” gained a new cast member today, with actress Alfre Woodard signing on to play Paris, an advisor and a priestess, reports Variety.

Woodard has starred in movies that include “12 Years a Slave,” “Annabelle,” and “Captain America: Civil War,” and she has had roles in several TV shows, such as “Luke Cage,” “Desperate Housewives,” and “State of Affairs.”

Alfre Woodard in “Luke Cage”
Casting for “See” began earlier this month with Jason Momoa set to play the lead role of Baba Voss, a fearless warrior, leader, and guardian. Momoa is well-known for his role as Khal Drogo in “Game of Thrones,” as well as roles in “Aquaman,” “Stargate Atlantis,” and “Conan the Barbarian.”

“See” has been described as an epic world-building drama that’s set in the future, with little additional information available on the series at this time.

Along with “See,” Apple has more than a dozen other original TV shows in the works, and rumors have suggested the first of those TV shows could debut in March 2019.

We don’t yet know how Apple plans to distribute the television shows, but the Cupertino company may be considering launching a new streaming video service to be bundled with an Apple Music subscription and a digital magazine and news subscription.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 12Tag: Apple’s Hollywood ambitionsBuyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Neutral)
Discuss this article in our forums

Review: iOttie’s 7.5W iON Wireless Chargers Feature a Simple, Attractive Design

There are hundreds of Qi wireless charging options available on the market, many of which feature the same no-frills plain black circle or square design. You can, for example, find dozens of inexpensive wireless chargers on Amazon at prices as low as $10, but if you’re looking for a more thoughtful, unique design you may need to spend a bit more.

I’ve been taking a look at some of the wireless charging options that stand out from the crowd, and over the last few weeks, I’ve been testing iOttie’s 7.5W iON Wireless Fast Charging Pad Plus and 7.5W iON Wireless Fast Charging Pad Mini.

iON Mini in gray on left, iON Plus in beige on right
Both the iON and the iON Mini are rectangle-shaped wireless chargers that are about as wide as the iPhone X. The Mini is about an inch shorter than the standard iON, and it’s also thinner because the iON has an extra cutout in the middle that’s meant to allow for better airflow.

Neither charger takes up too much space on a desk given the rectangular shape that can fit easily against a flat surface or in a corner, but the larger iON does take up more area, both horizontally and vertically.

The two chargers are wrapped in a heathered linen fabric in colors that include gray, beige, red, and black, and this design is attractive and looks nicer sitting on a desk or a bedside table than a standard black charger. At the top of each charger there’s a silicone ring for holding the iPhone in place while it charges.

Underneath the fabric, the body of the iON chargers is made from a lightweight plastic material. It’s not the most high-quality material, but it does make these nice and light in case you want to bring them along on a trip or tuck them into a bag for a commute to the office.

I liked the rectangle shape of the chargers because it matched the iPhone and it was easy to position the iPhone in the right way to charge without needing to fuss with finding the right spot for the coils to match up. That can be a hassle with some of the larger wireless chargers on the market.

There is a middle cutout in the bigger iON charger to reduce heat, and this version also has an extra USB-A port so you can plug another accessory in to charge it at the same time. iOttie says that this cutout on the iON Plus is meant to keep it cooler when charging, but I’m not sure that it added much aside from extra height.

Small LEDs on the front let you know when the iPhone is in the correct position, and these LEDs are little enough that they’re not too noticeable in a dark room.

At the bottom of the iON chargers, there are four silicone feet to keep the charger itself secured on a desk, table, nightstand, or other flat surface. A USB-C to USB-A cable plugs into the back of each charger, and when connected to the included QC 2.0 charger, 7.5W charging speeds are available.

The iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus can all charge at a maximum of 7.5W, but to reach these speeds, a 15W+ power adapter is required. While designed for iPhone, iOttie’s iON chargers will work with Qi-based Android devices.

I did two charging tests with each of the iON chargers, draining my iPhone X to 1 percent battery life and then giving it an hour to charge while in Airplane mode to make sure nothing was draining the battery. The ambient temperature in the room was about 73 degrees, a factor that will impact wireless charging times due to the complexities of temperature regulation when it comes to wireless charging.

With the larger iON Plus charging pad, it went from 1 percent to 39 percent in an hour both times. This is in line with what I’ve seen from other 7.5W wireless chargers during the summertime when indoor temperatures are warmer. I have seen some faster charging speeds by a percent or two, but it does appear the iON Plus is charging at 7.5W as advertised.

Speeds were a little bit slower with the iON Mini charging pad, coming in at 32 percent and 37 percent. It’s likely my iPhone wasn’t seated quite right on the charging pad during the first test, which just speaks to how important it can be to make sure things are lined up.

A 37 percent charge is still not too far off of other 7.5W wireless charging speeds that I’ve seen, though it is getting closer to 5W wireless charging speeds.

Compared to other 7.5W wireless chargers, that middle air vent on the iON Plus doesn’t seem to add much of an edge, but the bigger version did charge faster than the iON Mini, perhaps because of the promised airflow improvements.

Bottom Line

My favorite of the two iON wireless chargers from iOttie was the Mini, because I preferred its more compact size and its pocketability. It fits into a pocket or takes up little room in a purse or bag, so it’s a better travel choice.

The Mini was the slower charger of the two, but when I wirelessly charge my device, I’m generally doing so over the course of the day (or overnight) to keep it topped up, making charging speed less of a factor. I suspect many people who use wireless charging are using it in a similar manner, given that even the fastest wireless chargers can’t compete with faster wired charging methods.

The larger iON Plus version is ideal as a desktop charger if you want to add a little height to your iPhone while it’s charging to keep it up and out of the way, and both chargers look nice and function well.

iOttie’s chargers are not as cheap as some options on Amazon, but if you’re looking for a nicer aesthetic for your accessories, these are worth taking a look at.

How to Buy

The iON Wireless Fast Charging Pad Plus can be purchased from iOttie for $54.95. It’s also available on Amazon.com for $40 to $50.

The iON Wireless Fast Charging Pad Mini can be purchased from iOttie for $44.95. It’s also available on Amazon.com for $30 to $40.

Note: iOttie provided MacRumors with the iON Wireless Fast Charging Pad Mini and Plus for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.

Tag: wireless charging
Discuss this article in our forums

Steve Jobs on the App Store in 2008: ‘We Didn’t Expect It to Be This Big’

Following the launch of the App Store in 2008, Apple CEO Steve Jobs sat down for an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

In celebration of the recent 10th anniversary of the App Store, The Wall Street Journal today published both the audio and transcript of that interview, where Jobs shares his view on the future of the App Store and the future of Apple.

The interview took place in August of 2008, a month after the launch of the App Store. Even back then, just after its debut, the App Store’s success surprised Jobs, who said Apple hadn’t expected the App Store to “be this big.” “The mobile industry’s never seen anything like this,” he said.

Within 30 days, users had downloaded 30 percent as many apps as everybody in the world downloaded songs from iTunes during the same period of time. Jobs said he could not even predict how many new apps would be uploaded by a particular date given the App Store’s wildly popular debut.

I would not trust any of our predictions because reality has so far exceeded them by such a great degree that we’ve been reduced to spectators just like you, watching this amazing phenomenon and just doing our best to try to help everybody get their apps done and get them on the store.

In the early days of the App Store, Apple was criticized for high app prices. “It’s a competition,” said Jobs. “Who knew what to price things at?” According to Jobs, Apple didn’t have advice for developers on pricing either. “Our opinions are no better than yours because this is so new.”

Jobs went on to mull how the App Store could grow in the future as people adopted the iPhone and the iPod touch, speculating that it could be a billion dollar marketplace, which Apple has significantly exceeded. As of July 2018, developers have earned more than $100 billion from the App Store.

Who knows? Maybe it’ll be a billion dollar marketplace at some point in time. This doesn’t happen very often. A whole new billion dollar market opens up. 360 million in the first 30 days, I’ve never seen anything like this in my career for software.

Jobs said that he didn’t expect the App Store would be a big profit generator, with Apple instead launching it to add value to the iPhone. Jobs was wrong, though, and Apple’s services category is the size of a Fortune 100 company, largely on the strength of the App Store. In Q2 2018, for example, services brought in $9.19 billion and the App Store set an all time revenue record.

While Jobs was surprised by the success of the App Store, it didn’t stop him from declaring that the “phone of the future will be differentiated by software,” a prediction that has largely come true. Today, many high-end smartphones share similar features and designs, with software – iOS and Android – as one of the main factors that people take into consideration when choosing a device.

The entire interview with Steve Jobs is well worth listening to and can be found over at The Wall Street Journal.

Tag: Steve Jobs
Discuss this article in our forums

Home printer buying guide: How to choose a printer that best fits your needs

Sasi Ponchaisang

Essays. Coupons. Last-minute directions to Grandma’s house. Whatever you need to print, there’s a home printer that can do it. And intense competition among competitors such as HP, Epson, Canon and others has forced prices to such absurd lows that you can now walk into a store — even your local supermarket — and walk out with a brand new printer for $60 or less.

But selecting a home printer can be tough given the sheer amount of options on the market, not to mention the convoluted terms that only seem to complicate the process. With that in mind, we’ve put together a quick-and-dirty buying guide for selecting a home printer, with simple explanations of some of most common terms and recommendations that will serve the majority of users.

Inkjet or laser?

The first question all printer buyers must tackle comes down to a simple matter of what and how much you plan on printing.

Color inkjet printers comprise the bulk of the market simply because they can print just about anything: Essays, pie charts, or glossy photos, you name it. And today’s inkjet printers and all-in-ones are fast, often with print speeds that rival or surpass their laser counterparts.

Laser printers are still a good bet for office settings when most of the printing that you need to do is in monochrome. For the most part, monochrome laser printers can be purchased at affordable prices, offer good print speed, and in most cases, provide prints at a lower cost per page than a color inkjet. But you have to decide whether to give up the flexibility that a color inkjet printer offers. Color laser printers are another option, but they generally have a higher cost per page printed than a color inkjet.

In the past, laser printers have offered a higher page yield per cartridge than an inkjet printer. That’s changing, however, with some newer inkjet printers offering as many as 10,000 printed pages from a monochrome ink cartridge and 7,000 pages or more from each color cartridge. That translates into a lower cost per page, and less frequent cartridge changes.

For home use, a multifunction unit makes a lot of sense, not only because it’s cheaper than buying a printer and a standalone scanner, but also for the sake of saving room. Since all-in-ones are extremely common and manufacturers rarely charge much of a premium for them (you can often find one for as little as $50-$60) we highly recommend them for home users.

Note: Soon, you may not have to decide whether to purchase a standalone printer or an all-in-one. While manufacturers continue to bring out new printer-only units for the office, many of the new devices being introduced for home users are all-in-one models, phasing out print-only models.

Photo printers

If you’re more interested in preserving family photos on paper than printing off homework assignments and pie charts, consider a dedicated (single function) photo printer. Though they lack the flexibility of multitaskers, the quality of prints is typically better, and often rivals or exceeds the quality of what you would receive from a kiosk or mail-order service like Shutterfly. The price you’ll pay for this kind of convenience comes out in the print cost, however.

Many of the printers sold only for dedicated photo or graphic use are small-size units capable of printing photos up to 4 x 6 inches in size, or wide format models designed to print media up to 24-inches wide. Supplies for these specialty printers are also generally more expensive than those for the typical multifunction printer. Both Canon and Epson have models which print 8.5 x 11 inches and use five or six colors of ink to produce photos with greater color accuracy. And many all-in-one devices are capable of turning out photos up to 8.5 x 11 inches in size when you use the right paper.

Supply costs

Remember the mantra “give away the razor, sell the blades”? That century-old business model is still alive and well in the printer business, where many companies entice consumers with unimaginably low prices on their budget printers, knowing they can milk them over and over again when it comes time to replace the ink cartridges.

Research the cost of replacement supplies before you buy any printer to know what you’re in for when the initial cartridges finally run dry. Depending on how often you plan to print, it can actually be worth it to purchase a more expensive printer in order to buy into a cheaper line of cartridges. Also, look into the possibility of refilling your own cartridges, which can cost dramatically less than buying new cartridges every time. Keep in mind, however, that printer vendors now add tiny chips to their cartridges that track ink or toner life to make refilling more difficult.

Finally, investigate new models and ink plans. HP offers an Instant Ink program that automatically sends you cartridges when your ink runs low, and promises a fixed number of pages for a fixed monthly fee. Both Canon and Epson now offer “ink tank” models which you can fill from small bottles of ink, providing a very economical cost per page, while Brother has a number of printers with multiple cartridges in the box so you needn’t run out to buy refills for quite some time.

Italian researchers discover what they believe is a lake under ice cap on Mars

Global dust stormsHubble turned 27 on April 20, and to celebrate, this week’s photo is one of our favorite images the space telescope has snapped of Mars to date. In 2001, Hubble took this photo of the red planet during a massive, global dust storm. Mars has a rather thin atmosphere, however, winds can reach more than Olympus Mons, was the only surface feature seen poking through the dense cloud coverage. Just for comparisons sake, here are a pair of images showing the planet before and during this meteorological phenomenon. NASA/Hubble

Drop everything and take a seat. We humans may have a new home. Or at the very least, a prerequisite for a new home.

Scientists have discovered what is believed to be a lake located underneath the south polar ice cap of Mars, measuring about 12.5 miles across. While researchers previously found signs that water once flowed across the planet’s surface, this is the first time that a persistent, existing body of water has been discovered.

The lake, located a mile beneath the planet’s surface, is likely still in a liquid form only because it is extremely salty and under a lot of pressure. But still, water is water, and this finding has the capacity to fundamentally change what we know about the Red Planet and, of course, whether or not we will one day be able to inhabit it.

Roberto Orosei at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Bologna led the research team who drew the groundbreaking conclusions, and the paper detailing their work was today published in the journal Science. The team leveraged data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding, or MARSIS, which is located on the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Orbiter. The scientists examined data between 2012 and 2015 in the area near the planet’s south pole. While this region “does not exhibit any peculiar characteristics,” as the paper notes, it has long been thought that the polar ice caps may contain liquid deposits.

And now, this hypothesis has been proven correct.

“It’s probably not a very large lake,” Orosei told the BBC. While it’s unclear how deep the lake is, the team estimates a minimum of three feet. “This really qualifies this as a body of water. A lake, not some kind of meltwater filling some space between rock and ice, as happens in certain glaciers on Earth,” Orosei added.

To be fair, this doesn’t actually imply anything concerning the existence of life on Mars quite yet. As Dr. Manish Patel from the Open University told the BBC, “We have long since known that the surface of Mars is inhospitable to life as we know it, so the search for life on Mars is now in the subsurface. This is where we get sufficient protection from harmful radiation, and the pressure and temperature rise to more favorable levels. Most importantly, this allows liquid water, essential for life.”

Ultimately, while scientists are not any closer to finding actual life on Mars, it does give them a sense of where to look. As Patel explained, “It is like a treasure map – except in this case, there will be lots of ‘X’s marking the spots.”

Scientists are careful to warn, however, that there still is not definitive evidence that this body of water is, in fact, liquid water.

“Getting there and acquiring the final evidence that this is indeed a lake will not be an easy task,” Orosei admitted. “It will require flying a robot there which is capable of drilling through 1.5km of ice. This will certainly require some technological developments that at the moment are not available.”

But here’s hoping that they will be soon.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Get your Sagan on with 60 awe-inspiring photos of the final frontier
• NASA’s Opportunity Rover is stuck in a giant dust storm that won’t end for months
• Mars rover Curiosity finds the building blocks of life on the red planet
• NASA and ESA will team up to bring Martian soil samples back to Earth
• ‘Mars, here I come!’ NASA’s InSight launches on a six-month journey