It’s curtains for Kuri: Robot companion project hits the buffers

The world of robotic home companions suffered a setback this week when one of its potential stars walked out of the door.

Mayfield Robotics said on Wednesday that it’s ending work on its Kuri robot following three years of development.

The startup, which began with backing from German tech giant Bosch, said it felt “crushed” to announce the news of Kuri’s demise. But it said it had no choice after an extensive review concluded “there was not a business fit within Bosch to support and scale our business.”

For those not in the know, Kuri stood 20 inches high and was more of “an intelligent pet than a robot butler,” according to Mayfield. The cute-looking, wheel-based bot acted as an interactive and mobile videographer, capturing everyday moments around the home via its 1080p camera.

Kuri responded to voice commands and could navigate its way around autonomously. The owner could also control it remotely via a smartphone app if they wanted to check on their premises from afar. You could even talk through it, so if you saw your house being burgled, you could yell at the crooks to “get the hell out.” Similar to SoftBank’s Pepper robot, singing and dancing was also part of Kuri’s repertoire.

Mayfield said in a blog post on Wednesday that Kuri production will cease and that any that have been made will not be shipped. “All pre-order deposits will be refunded to our customers,” it confirmed in the post.

Kuri turned a lot of heads when it was first unveiled at CES 2017, impressing many with its mobility, awareness, and personality smarts.

“It doesn’t feel like a robot in the traditional sense,” Mayfield’s Chris Matthews told Digital Trends at the time. “It connects to people in a different way than normal tech. It’s very much about what people feel.”

Mayfield said its creation fulfilled its vision to create robots that are “joyful, useful, and inspiring,” but added that creating such a design had been a “massive undertaking.”

Its announcement comes just weeks after Honda announced it was ceasing development of Asimo, a talented robot that could run, hop, handle objects, and converse with humans. Honda said it would transfer Asimo’s technology to existing projects for single-person mobility vehicles and autonomous cars.

According to Mayfield’s statement, the Redwood City, California-based startup will live to see another day, as it’s opted to merely “pause operations” rather than end them entirely. That suggests it’s not yet done with the development of robotic technology, even if it’s curtains for Kuri.

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Segway wants you to stand on wheeled balancing boards, because that sounds safe

If you thought Heelys (those wheeled sneakers that every preteen in the United States used to careen about in) were odd, you may want to take a seat. Segway is here to prove that when it comes to strange methods of transportation, it’s the top dog. Meet the new Segway Drift W1s. They’re self-balancing roller shoes, and can be compared to a hoverboard that just lives on your foot. Well, I suppose it would technically be two halves of a hoverboard living on each foot.

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The Drift W1s are apparently the first product in the company’s  new e-Skates category, and they leverage Segway’s self-balancing technology that was first put to use in the original Segway scooter — you know, that thing that let users lean into the direction they wished to travel.

These new shoes are in some ways a 21st-century answer to roller blades and in-line skates, though it does feel a bit like Segway is trying to fix something that wasn’t broken to begin with. But never to be deterred, the company, which was acquired by Ninebot back in 2015, is  calling its Drift W1s the new trend of 2018.

“The new Segway Drift W1 brings all the fun and coolness you expect from Segway’s consumer products line, combined with the high-quality engineering consumers expect from the Segway brand,” the company stated in an announcement. The skates purport to be easy to carry, lightweight, and relatively small. Based on images and videos that we’ve seen, it looks like each Drift W1 fits exactly under your foot, so you don’t have  too much room for error (or experimentation).

The tires are purportedly meant to improve stability and your ability to steer, and thanks to slip-resistant foot mats, you should be at least relatively safe when you step on the W1s. Of course, it’s likely that it will take awhile for you to get used to this new-age method of transportation, so we wouldn’t recommend running around on these W1s without some protective gear.

Apparently, Segway agrees, and if you buy a pair of these shoe things, you’ll get a free helmet. Seems reasonable.

A pair of Drift W1s will set you back just under $400, and shipping is expected to begin in August. Each W1 will weigh about 7.7 pounds, and will be able to take you up to 7.5 miles per hour. The total riding time is contingent upon riding style and terrain, but Segway says that you can expect 45 minutes of fun per charge.

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There are still a few idiots left using the Galaxy Note 7

Please stop.

By now, most of the average phone-buying public has forgotten about the whole Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. That thing where many Note 7s had batteries that failed (sometimes dangerously), leading to a recall and replacement program, which was followed again by the new units failing just as spectacularly.

Samsung, carriers and local regulatory bodies have gone to extensive lengths to make Galaxy Note 7s unusable. It started with a software push that nagged you to return your phone. Then a software update that limited your battery charge — and another that limited it further. Then the carriers stepped in and started to block SIMs that were used in a Note 7. Eventually Samsung issued software updates that made it difficult or impossible to charge the phone.

Still, people who love their Note 7 held on tight (hopefully not too tight) and are still using their phones today — albeit in a diminished state. They’ve skipped software updates, rooted their phones or modified them in another way to keep them in use. There are some workarounds actively being discussed to get the software back up and working. The barely-alive Galaxy Note 7 subreddit still has a little activity, and if you search around you can still find diehard Note 7 users out there — despite the newer Note 8 being on sale for 11 months now, and refurbished Note 5s being available for a steep discount. Heck, even the Note 7 Fan Edition is available in some regions.

Despite all of the effort, as of April 2018 even Samsung’s own recall page notes that “nearly all” recalled Note 7s have been returned — yes, that means there are still active devices out there.

Somehow, Samsung hasn’t been able to capture every recalled Note 7 yet.

For the first few months after the reports of Note 7 battery failures rolled in, despite our calls for everyone to return their Note 7 right away, it was at least a partially understandable position to hold onto your Note 7. Now, it isn’t — and honestly it hasn’t been for about a year now. The Galaxy Note 7 was a really great device before it started to exhibit its horrible battery safety flaw. But it’s been replaced with products that are newer and more capable — and critically, ones that don’t catch fire.

This has to stop, folks. Nobody should be using an original Note 7 anymore. Contact Samsung or your carrier and return it for a refund. And when you do, get ready to upgrade to the new Galaxy Note 9 — it’s time to move on.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9

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• Do you plan on upgrading to the Note 9?
• Galaxy Note 8 review
• Join our Galaxy Note 9 forums

What is Fuchsia, and why should you care?

Fuchsia isn’t going to be a thing you can see on your phone; it will power the things you can see on your phone.

A long time ago, in 2016, the internet learned about a supposed Google initiative to merge Chrome OS and Android. It was to have the codename Andromeda and would unify all of Google’s computing platforms so that they all used the same operating system. It made sense in many ways; it is similar to what Microsoft is doing with mobile, tablet and desktop software and supposedly the direction Apple is moving with iOS and macOS. Codenames and rumors aside, what ended up happening was the ability to visit the Google Play Store with a Chromebook and run Android apps natively.

This was a big deal, and if it was what Andromeda turned out to be it was certainly enough. Everyone benefits from having Android apps available on Chromebooks — Google can sell more and we can use them better because there will be an “app for that” whenever we need one. But the idea of Android and Chrome merging never really went away. It just got a new codename: Fuchsia.

More: These are the Chromebooks that can run Android and Linux apps

Fuchsia got its name, according to some of the developers, from existing projects.

Pink + Purple = Fuchsia (a new Operating System)

Project Pink was an original idea from Apple’s engineering team when they decided it was time to build a new object-oriented operating system with a new user interface, and the notes were written on pink index cards. Project Purple was the original name given to prototype production of a touchscreen phone from Apple; the iPhone. The original developers of Fuchsia are well-versed with this history, as they were also part of former projects like BeOS, iOS, and WebOS.

But an operating system needs more than a name. And without Google telling us anything about its new project, we’re left to piece together all the breadcrumbs the internet can find. Here is what we know so far.

Fuchsia is not going to replace Android or Chrome OS

Android is a complicated thing. It can be thought of as a complete operating system that you would find on a smartphone or tablet, or it can be a small part of an operating system that is built to run applications as we saw from BlackBerry on OS 10 devices. Most of all, Android is familiar to about two billion people and has a huge ecosystem of software, devices, accessories and support staff. You never abandon something this successful — you build on it instead.

Google learned the benefit of using their own software from Oracle in the courtroom.

Fuchsia will probably replace the part of the software you don’t see; the part that makes the hardware run and lets you tell your phone to do something when you tap the screen or talk into the microphone.

Right now Android uses the Linux kernel and a handful of utility programs written to work with Linux. Linux is great in many ways. It’s built to work with almost anything hardware-wise, has a huge community that contributes and makes every version better than the last one, and will be around a lot longer than any hardware you buy today that uses it. Chrome is mostly the same way. Its’s a bunch of user-facing services and utilities that run atop the Linux kernel. So is Android Auto, and Android TV, and Wear OS.

But Linux doesn’t “belong” to Google and it wasn’t designed specifically for mobile hardware. These are two things Google wants and eventually will need in order to continue to compete.

Fuchsia will be built for 2019 and beyond, not for the legacy of the past.

Google needs a mobile operating system built from the ground up at every level designed for 2018. It has to be lean and easy on resources, be able to compute quickly without taxing the chips inside our phones, and it has to be able to instantly respond to all the ways we can “talk” to it like touch, mouse and keyboard, or voice. And it has to do all of this while still being the same user-friendly Android we already know and still run the millions of applications written for Android.

In short, Fuchsia is replacing Linux and parts of Android (and probably Chrome, Android TV, Android Auto, etc.) with something that works better for Google’s purposes. The user interface — what you and I see on our phones or Chromebooks or watches — has nothing to do with this part of the operating system. Besides, Fuchsia is too hard to spell.

Benefits of the change

As mentioned, Google wants software they have more control over and that was designed to be lean and fast on the relatively low-end hardware we see in mobile products. But there are two other very important benefits from moving to a custom operating system, and this time we do get to see them.

Developers will be able to use more current programming languages to write applications. We’re already seeing this with programming tools like Dart and Flutter making their way to Android, and any new OS is certainly being written with modern programming tools in mind.

Sometimes you need a sledgehammer. Other times you need something more delicate.

There is nothing wrong with programming in C or Java. Both languages are very robust and can make any hardware do anything. But that also means they are designed to do a lot of things a mobile app developer doesn’t need, and this can make them a little cumbersome to learn and use. An Android app developer doesn’t need his code to communicate directly with the CPU using machine code. But an app developer does need access to easier and more efficient ways to have smooth UI transitions or scalability for different screens. C++ is great for powering a robot, but Flutter is great for building a great app interface. Letting developers leverage tools that help make better apps means we get better apps.

These new tools combined with a unified bottom layer of software across all devices means one app can work everywhere. That’s great, but Android already lets one app work everywhere, and to be frank, that means apps mostly suck on any device except a phone. Different size screens need different user interfaces, and most developers only code for a phone-sized one because it’s not easy to make an app look great everywhere.

Better developer tools mean better apps on every screen.

That will change with tools like Flutter and that’s our second benefit. Right now it’s difficult to build an Android app that works on a small 5-inch display but transforms to take advantage of a 12-inch display. It can be done beautifully — see the Gmail app for an example — but the work involved usually puts developers off the idea. If the tools would let a developer define a few different ways to use the full display to give us the right amount of information with just a few steps, most developers would do so.

Fuchsia demo installed on the Google Pixelbook.

This is what Fuchsia looks like on the Pixelbook. Developers can easily define what goes into the smaller content fields, what is used as a pleasant background, how things are laid out and how much content we need to see with just a few steps. Right now there are only examples and demos, but those give us an excellent idea of what to expect. Compare it to Fuchsia on a phone-sized display below.

Notice the similarities, then notice the differences. This is how one piece of software, in this case, a simple user interface or “home” app, can be changed to perform on two different size displays. This is what Android in its current state is lacking. This is what we need to happen. This is why Google — and we — want Fuchsia to become a real thing.

Nothing is final, everything can change

As mentioned at the top of this article, we’ve built this on a mixture of rumors, source code uploads, tidbits of insider information, and a dash of imagination. Google has said nothing about any future where Fuchsia is a reality.

That’s important because this is a HUGE undertaking. It’s even bigger than creating Android in the first place was because much of it involves coding for the bottom layer instead of depending on existing software. Android was built atop Linux, iOS was built atop BSD, Fuchsia is being built from the ground up. It will take a few years until we could see a consumer version or even a version for the public to test that’s not just a proof of concept demo. This is hard work that will take thousands of hours to finish.

I believe that Google does have plans for Fuchsia and it’s not just a pet project of some talented developers or something Google will start and never finish. I’m paying close attention to all of this, not just because it’s how we make our living, but because we’re both interested and amazed at what might develop from the project. We’ll continue to revisit this space and add information as it becomes available, but for now, there is mostly educated guessing and plenty of wishing involved.

Top 3 ways Fuchsia can be a better operating system than Android

Chromebooks

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Grab the ecobee3 smart thermostat with three sensors for $200

Control your temperature from anywhere.

The ecobee3 smart thermostat comes in a bundle with three room sensors for just $199.99 total on Amazon right now. The thermostat by itself with one sensor is more than expensive than this deal. The two sensors sell in a pack for $79 outside of this bundle.

This is ecobee’s previous-generation model, which has since been replaced by the ecobee4 with Alexa built-in. The ecobee3 doesn’t have Alexa built in, but it can still connect to Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo Dot if you want to replicate that functionality. The room sensors will help keep an even temperature across your whole home by accurately measuring and managing cold and warm spots in the house.

See at Amazon

Should you buy a Galaxy S9+ or wait for the Galaxy Note 9?

Two big phones with one big difference.

We now know the Galaxy Note 9 will be unveiled at an event in New York City on August 9, and that gets all of our wheels turning thinking about the possibilities of what we can expect and whether it’s worth waiting for. For Samsung fans looking to make the move to a new phone, there really are two options: buy a Galaxy S9+ today, or wait for the Galaxy Note 9.

Let us help you down the path of choosing which one is right for you, and whether you should wait it out.

Who should buy a Galaxy S9+ now

The Galaxy S9+ has a massive advantage here: it’s actually available to buy. The Note 9 will likely be available to pre-order about a week after announcement, but retail availability will probably take a week more, meaning we’re still well off from having a true head-to-head comparison here. Smartphone fans may be willing to wait for a specific phone to come out, but you may not be so flexible. If you need a phone right now, don’t try to scrape by for a month and a half with a broken phone (for example) just to get the Note 9 — pick up a Galaxy S9+ and you’ll be happy.

Unless you have a strong affinity for the Note line, just get a Galaxy S9+ now.

Now we don’t know exactly what the Galaxy Note 9 will offer in terms of specs or features yet, but we can make an educated guess based on previous releases. We can count on the Note 9 to basically match the GS9+ in terms of internal specs, with the same processor, RAM and storage options — though the base storage may bump up to 128GB, that isn’t really an advantage considering the GS9+ has that option already. The screen will likely be a little bigger, but keep the same resolution — and the Galaxy S9+’s screen is fantastic still no matter what. The cameras are likely to be the same or ever-so-slightly tweaked for a new feature. The software will also be similar, since Samsung typically reserves the Galaxy S release to debut altogether new software designs and features.

So really, the core of the Note 9 experience will just be the same as the Galaxy S9+. That bodes well for Note fans, because they’re getting a preview of how great their next phone will be, but it’s also good for anyone who just wants a Samsung phone now — you won’t be missing out on much. If you don’t have any affinity for the Galaxy Note line, it makes the decision even easier to just buy a Galaxy S9+ now and start enjoying your new phone. The Note 9 promises to be even more expensive than the GS9+ as well, so you’ll save some money in the process.

Reasons to wait for the Galaxy Note 9

With so much shared in the core platform of the Galaxy S9+ and Note 9, the differences are going to be minimal — but just in case you’re looking for the absolute best, the Note 9 is expected to improve in a couple areas. The Note 9 is purported to make an improvement in battery size, perhaps going up to 4000mAh, which would be a welcomed return to the Note series offering more capacity than the plus-sized Galaxy S. The Note 9’s display may make another leap in brightness and outdoor visibility, too. And then of course there’s the one feature the Galaxy S9+ can’t match: the S Pen stylus.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9: Everything you need to know

Diehard Note fans shouldn’t settle for the Galaxy S9+ — especially this close to announcement.

To put it simply, if you’re a diehard Note fan you won’t be satisfied with a Galaxy S9+. Yes the screen is almost as big, but the GS9+ is missing the feature that makes the Note name so important to people: the S Pen. If you’ve spent your time getting used to the power and precise input of the S Pen on your current Note — perhaps a Note 5 or even Note 8 — it’ll feel like a downgrade moving to the Galaxy S9+ even though it’s a great phone in itself. We don’t know what changes Samsung will make to the precision, pressure sensitivity or software of the S Pen, but even without any improvements it would still be far and away the best smartphone stylus available.

If you’re happy with your current phone and not in dire need of a new device, the best course of action is to just wait it out. With the Galaxy Note 9 launch event on the horizon, it’s an easy task to simply wait a bit until you have all of the information in front of you for a proper decision. Even if you’re not all that enamored with the idea of an S Pen, an extra month of patience can help you out with a potential reduced price for the Galaxy S9+ if you decide to go that direction.

Are you going to wait?

Whether to grab a currently available phone or wait for a new model to be released is a constant debate, but it’s never more heated than when we’re talking about Samsung flagships. Are you inclined to wait for the Note 9, or just pick up a Galaxy S9+?

Update July 2018: Added the latest information and rumors on the Galaxy Note 9’s release.

Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+

• Galaxy S9 and S9+: Everything you need to know!
• Galaxy S9 review: A great phone for the masses
• Complete Galaxy S9 and S9+ specs
• Galaxy S9 vs. Galaxy S8: Should you upgrade?
• Join our Galaxy S9 forums

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Instagram Stories on Android: Everything you need to know!

Instagram is the most popular photo-sharing social network, and Stories is one of its most intimate components.

A few years ago, Instagram was just a simple competitor to services like VSCO and Hipstamatic, known for heavy-handed filters, square crops, and hashtags. Today, with over a billion monthly users, it’s one of the largest social networks around, and its ephemeral Stories feature has already has far surpassed Snapchat, the app that it, ahem, borrowed from.

Snapchat on Android: Everything you need to know

No matter your feelings on Instagram essentially cloning Snapchat, it’s hard to argue against reaching a larger audience. With over 400 million daily users, Stories is a great way to keep up with friends and idols alike — of course, it’s yet another way to keep them in the loop about your own life, too. The simpler interface versus Snapchat doesn’t hurt either, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still complicated. Lucky for you, there’s a comprehensive guide for that — and you’re looking at it.

Download: Instagram (free)

Getting familiar with Instagram Stories

• How to view stories
• How to post stories
• Text and drawings
• Filters
• Stickers
• Type
• Live on Instagram
• Boomerangs
• Superzoom
• Focus
• Rewind
• Hands-free
• Android versus iOS

How to view stories

Maybe the most straightforward part of using Instagram Stories is viewing them. From the main screen (denoted by a home icon in the bottom left corner), you’ll notice a row of circular icons at the top displaying the profile pictures of the users you follow who have posted stories within the past 24 hours. You can scroll through the list to find a particular user and tap their icon to view their story, or just hit the Watch All button above the icons. Once you’ve viewed someone’s entire story, the red outline around their profile picture (indicated unseen content) will turn gray.

While you’re viewing a user’s story, their username is displayed in the top left corner of the screen, along with how long ago the content was posted. A bar at the top indicates the length of the story, and if there’s more than one entry in the story that line will be split into equal segments for each part. From there, you can tap on the left or right side of the screen to progress forward or backward through each story — once you finish a user’s story, you’ll automatically advance to the next user in the list until you’ve seen every new post.

One more thing — you can do more than just look while you’re viewing someone’s story. You can send a private message to a user in response to part of their story by tapping the camera icon or text field at the bottom. You can also send part of someone’s story to another user by tapping the paper airplane icon.

Of course, not everything is appropriate for social media, and in the case of Instagram, that includes “violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful, pornographic or sexually suggestive photos or other content” (per Instagram’s terms of use). If you come across a story in violation of Instagram’s policies, you can report it using the overflow button inside of the text field.

How to post your own stories

Alright, so it turns out viewing someone else’s story is pretty simple after all. Now let’s tackle posting stories of your own.

Start by swiping right from the main feed to access the camera; you’ve undoubtedly done this by accident a few dozen times by now, and you’d be forgiven for confusing this panel for the camera accessed by the plus icon in the middle of Instagram’s navigation bar (which is for capturing photos and videos to post on your profile). Instead, this is the hub for all of the tools that’ll help you post the best stories possible.

Near the bottom of this screen, you’ll see a few tools; namely a shortcut to your recent shots, a flash toggle, the shutter button, the camera switcher, and face filters. There are also a few shooting modes beneath those tools, including Type, Live, Boomerang, Superzoom, Focus, Rewind, and Hands-Free, as well as a shortcut to your story settings in the upper left corner.

We’ll get to all of that in a bit, but the first thing to do is just take a photo! You can tap the shutter button to quickly take a photo, or hold it down to start capturing video — you can shoot for up to 15 seconds, or let go at any time to stop recording early. If you want to zoom while recording, just slide your finger up or down from the shutter button. Sometimes you might want to share something you’ve already shot, and that’s okay too — just tap the camera roll button in the bottom left corner or swipe up from anywhere in the viewfinder to access all of the photos and videos you’ve captured in the last 24 hours. Once you’ve captured something worth sharing, you can post it by tapping Your Story at the bottom of the screen, or just hit Save to keep the shot in your gallery.

Adding text or drawings

Before you post your first story, you might want to spruce it up with some text. You can tap anywhere on the screen to bring up a text input field, and resize your text, change colors, or even change your font by using the accompanying tools. Typing @ followed by someone’s username (like, oh I don’t know, @androidcentral or @hayatohuseman) will tag that user in your story, notifying them of the post and creating a link for other users to view their profile. You can also make your text more visible by tapping the button in the middle of the top row to create a white or translucent background.

For a little added pizazz, you can draw on your story by tapping the marker icon in the upper right corner. There are a few different brush tips to choose from, including a marker, a highlighter, glowing ink, and chalk, as well as an eraser and an undo button to fix small mistakes. Just like with text, you can choose from some different preset colors, or pull a color from your shot using the dropper tool.

Face filters

Would it really be a Snapchat clone without silly face filters? You’ve probably already noticed the smiley face icon in the bottom right corner that looks like a toggle for beautification mode. Tap it or press and hold anywhere in the camera viewfinder, and a scrollable row of face filters will appear at the bottom of the screen. It isn’t just the feature itself that’s been ported over, either — the filters themselves are nearly identical replicas of some of Snapchat’s most popular effects, including a cat and dog, sunglasses, and an actual beautification filter.

Still, original or not, these face filters are a fun way to add some flair to a selfie, and the tracking is actually surprisingly good. The filters are able to detect facial movements like raising your eyebrows, opening your mouth or nodding your head, and they react accordingly with different effects and animations.

Latest Instagram update adds face filters and more

Stickers

Filters are yet another whimsical addition to your stories that can add context, viewer participation, or just simple amusement. To access stickers, tap the icon in the top right corner next to the text and marker icons. You’ll be greeted with a vertically scrolling list with dozens of custom stickers, along with all of your phone’s supported emoji to use as stickers. Options range from seasonal stickers to labels that are clearly catered towards millennials (lit, yasss, it me, ugh, savage, etc).

There are stickers to add the current time or temperature to your story, and you can use the location sticker to tag places of interest just as you would with a regular photo upload on Instagram. You can also use the hashtag sticker to reach a wider audience through Instagram’s search tools, or search for GIFs provided by Giphy.

If you ask me, though, the most fun comes from Instagram’s interactive stickers. It started with a simple emoji slider, but these days you can run a poll amongst your followers or even let them ask you questions that you then answer in the form of individual posts in your Story. These stickers can be some of the best tools for connecting with your followers — give them a try!

Instagram’s new Q&A feature is a bigger deal than you think

Type

Back to those different shooting modes in the Stories camera. If you’ve ever wanted to announce to your followers without taking a picture, Type is a great way to do it. It’s simple to use — once you switch to Type mode, you can tap anywhere on the screen to start writing out a message. As with any other shooting mode, you can change your font and text alignment, though you can’t change the font color. Instead, you can tap the circular icon in the lower left corner to change the background, cycling through different colored gradients. The downside of Type mode is that you can’t resize or reposition your text; it stays dead-center on the screen, so using Type too often can lead to a boring Story.

Live on Instagram

Instagram wasn’t satisfied with just taking on (and overtaking) Snapchat, so it went after live streaming platforms like Periscope as well. From the viewfinder, slide the mode selector all the way to the left to access live mode. You can hit Start Live Video to begin publicly streaming, and Instagram will send a push notification to some of your followers letting them know you’re live. Viewers can comment in real time, and at the end of your broadcast the entire stream can be rewatched in your story, denoted with a play button in your story icon.

You can also add a second person to your live stream using the Add icon near the bottom right of the screen. A list will appear with the users currently watching your stream, any of which can be invited to join in a split-screen view. This feature is great for increasing audience engagement during a live stream, and you can remove the second party at any time.

Instagram now lets you live stream with a friend

Boomerangs

Boomerangs are one of my favorite parts of Stories. They’re essentially just animated GIFs for Instagram, with the bonus of not igniting tired arguments over pronunciation. To start capturing one of your own, swipe over to the Boomerang mode in the Stories viewfinder. An infinity symbol will appear in the shutter button, and tapping it will record a one-second looping video that you can edit and share to your story just like any other capture. You can also press and hold the shutter button to capture a longer Boomerang, cutting off after about three seconds.

It hasn’t been updated in over a year, but there’s also a standalone app for capturing Boomerangs, which you can then share to Instagram or Facebook. The nice thing about both the app and the shooting mode in Instagram is that if you really enjoy a particular capture, it doesn’t have to stay confined to your story — you can post Boomerangs to your regular feed the same way you would a photo or video.

Download: Boomerang for Instagram (free)

Superzoom

Superzoom is a just-for-fun feature that, while not particularly useful, will still probably get a laugh out of you when you use it. When recording in Superzoom mode, a dramatic sound effect will play as the camera automatically zooms in on a subject. Switch to the Superzoom shooting mode and a box will appear, denoting where the camera will zoom. The camera immediately begins searching for a face to track, and if none are found it will default to the center of the frame. Once you start shooting, it’s just like any other video — edit away and share it to your story!

Focus

One of Instagram’s newer shooting modes is Focus, which emulates the portrait mode effect bundled on most phones these days. Whether you’re using the front or rear camera, Instagram creates a narrow depth of field, blurring out the background behind you to make you stand out more in a shot. Like most artificial bokeh effects, it isn’t always perfect, but it’s a great option to have, especially for those whose phones don’t have portrait mode built in. Best of all, Instagram’s Focus mode even works for video!

How does Instagram’s new Focus mode compare to your phone’s portrait mode?

Rewind

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. From the rewind shooting mode, you can either tap the shutter button or press and hold to begin recording a video. Once you’ve finished, Instagram will take a second to process the footage and begin playing it back in reverse. This is a bit less robust than Snapchat’s rewind function, which is applied as a filter rather than an entire shooting mode; because of this difference, you can’t change a reversed clip to play back the right way if you change your mind, so make wise use of this effect.

Hands-free stories

As a guitarist who sometimes like to share snippets of songs I’m working on to my story, I really appreciate Instagram’s final shooting mode for Stories, hands-free video. In this mode, you can simply tap the shutter button to begin recording a video, as opposed to needing to press and hold in the normal shooting mode. If you aren’t musically inclined, that’s okay — there are plenty of handy uses for this feature, none of which can be done on Snapchat.

It’s worth mentioning that this feature can be subverted by simply uploading an existing video clip you shot in your phone’s native camera app, but there’s just something different about recording directly from the app you’re sharing to.

Android versus iOS

Unfortunately, even major platforms like Instagram still leave Android out of some of the fun when it comes to new features. For the most part, you can have the same Stories experience on either platform, but iOS does get a few exclusive features. If you’ve tried to answer questions on an Android phone, you’ve probably noticed that you can only type over a gradient, rather than taking a picture or pulling from your gallery like your iPhone-toting friends. That’s not the only time text is handled differently — when adding text to a photo in your story on iOS, Instagram provides magnetic guidelines to perfectly line up your message. On Android, you can straighten out your text but it won’t attach to any particular part of the image.

Aligning images also works a bit differently depending on your platform. On iOS, imported photos and videos either shrink to fit the screen horizontally (creating ample letterboxing) or expand to fill it vertically. On Android, you can pinch and zoom to manipulate the image to whatever size and placement you like — though unlike iOS, it won’t lock into place.

Having trouble?

I really like Stories, and Instagram as a whole, but neither is without its flaws. Luckily whenever there’s a problem, Instagram is quick to resolve it, but it’s still good to be aware of the occasional setbacks.

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Got any other tips or tricks?

We tried to make this as detailed as possible, but if we missed anything, let us know in the comments below and we’ll update the article as new features come to Instagram Stories.

Update, July 2018: Added sections for Type, Focus, and Android versus iOS, and updated surrounding sections to reflect new features.

It’s official: Xiaomi Mi A2 is launching in India on Aug. 8

Xiaomi’s 2018 Android One device will make its way to India in two weeks’ time.

Xiaomi unveiled the Mi A2 and Mi A2 Lite at an event in Madrid yesterday, and we now have more details on global availability. Xiaomi has sent out invites to the media for an event on August 8, where it will launch the Mi A2 in India.

Mi A2 is the latest Android One from Xiaomi, and there’s considerable upgrades on the hardware front. It offers a 5.99-inch FHD+ 18:9 panel, and is powered by the Snapdragon 660, the best mid-range chipset available today.

It also comes with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, along with dual 12MP + 20MP cameras at the back, a 20MP front shooter, and a 3000mAh battery. Xiaomi’s obviously known for offering robust hardware, but it’s the fact that the Mi A2 runs Android One that makes it such an enticing option.

As an added bonus for Indian customers, Xiaomi has stated that it will offer the Mi A2 with Quick Charge 4.0 exclusively for the country. In other markets, the phone comes with QC3.0. The charger in the box, however, works at 5V/2A, so you’ll have to buy a QC4.0 wall charger to leverage the phone’s full charging potential.

We’ll have to wait a few weeks to know the price, but it should be less than the $325 quoted figure for the base 4GB/64GB option. If the Mi A2 launches at anywhere around the ₹20,000 ($290) figure, it should make the device an instant hit with Indian consumers.

In the meantime, what are you looking forward to the most from the Mi A2?

5 reasons to be excited about the Xiaomi Mi A2

Fallout 76: Everything you need to know!

Fallout 76 is about to take nuclear survival to an entirely new level.

Post-apocalyptic nuclear wastelands are supposed to be terrifying, but we’re always excited to experience those conditions whenever we take a visit back to the world of Fallout. With Fallout 4 having kicked this generation off, Bethesda is ready to turn in yet another new title – and all of this is before we’ve had another proper Elder Scrolls game!

It’s called Fallout 76. And no, that doesn’t mean it’s the 76th Fallout game made. To find out the significance of that number and everything else you need to know about Fallout 76, read on.

What’s new with Fallout 76?

Excited about rebuilding a civilization devastated by nuclear fallout? Keep it locked here for the latest details on Fallout 76. We’ll be updating this post periodically as new information surfaces.

July 23, 2018

Just like Fallout 4 received, Fallout 76 is getting a strong marketing campaign in the months leading up to its launch. Bethesda has new videos showcasing a few of the new mechanics you’ll encounter within the game.

Intro to multiplayer and griefing

Fallout 76 won’t feature any human NPCs, so when you see another person out in the Wasteland, it’s someone from the real world. Whether they turn out to be hostile or friendly, this constant knowledge should always keep you on your toes.

In order to avoid griefing, you cannot be killed by another player until you reach level 5, giving you some time to accustom yourself to the gameplay. Those deemed overly aggressive will also be given a wanted level, further discouraging players from ruining the fun of others. Bethesda is still tweaking the systems in place to deter griefing, but there will be systems so players cannot be abusive.

“So you can’t be harassed by somebody who just keeps chasing you around the world and keeps killing you over and over again,” said Bethesda’s Pete Hines. “The game literally doesn’t allow that to happen to you.”

Intro to C.A.M.P.

Bethesda expanded upon Fallout 76’s base building. Dubbed the C.A.M.P. (Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform) system, this differs from Fallout 4’s settlement system in that you can move your base around. It wouldn’t seem fair to settle down in one area only to find yourself plagued by enemies day and night. If you do find your little base under attack too often for your liking, you can move it around between pre-determined areas of the map. The building process, menus, and UI are similar to that found in Fallout 4.

Intro to nukes

When Todd Howard revealed that players could nuke sections of the map, there were some reservations about this mechanic. How would this affect gameplay? Could this be abused? Thankfully, Bethesda is implementing nukes in such a way that sounds more like a fun challenge and less a constant annoyance.

The ability to use nukes is gated behind randomly finding every piece of the code to launch one. You can’t just go up to a silo and instantly nuke the world. When you’re out fighting the various threats in West Virginia, you may find that one of the fallen enemies has a nuclear Silo Alpha Code when you go to loot them. This is just the beginning of your journey to unleash hell. Once you collect several pieces to get the full code, you can then find the appropriate nuclear silo and choose a target to wipe out in one of the six distinct regions; Ash Heap, Toxic Valley, Savage Divide, The Forest, The Mire, and Cranberry Bog.

Nuking an area turns it into an end-game location of sorts. The resulting destruction changes the land for a period of time (not forever), welcoming more powerful enemies, rare loot, and new environmental hazards. Great rewards come with great risk. Think of areas similar to the Glowing Sea in Fallout 4.

B.E.T.A.

As announced at E3, Fallout 76 will indeed be getting a B.E.T.A. (Break-it Early Test Application) before arriving this fall. Bethesda recently revealed that the beta will be taking place in October, though specific dates were not announced. The company has stated that Xbox One users will get access to the beta first before PlayStation 4 and PC. Currently you can get a code to participate in the beta by pre-ordering Fallout 76 at participating retailers.

July 1st, 2018

Speaking on the issue of cross-play. Bethesda’s Todd Howard confirmed that Fallout 76 won’t have the feature. He mentions that they would love to add it, but it isn’t currently possible due to Sony’s policy on not allowing cross-platform play with competing platforms.

A loosely translated report from German outlet Gamestar suggests Howard specifically called out Sony, noting that they are “not as helpful as everyone would like it.” This comes as no surprise, as Sony has been under fire lately for the cross-play issue that keeps Fortnite players from being able to use their accounts on multiple platforms.

Howard’s tone would suggest that cross-play could eventually be added if Sony ever lifts restrictions, but for now, you can expect the online communities of Fallout 76 to remain isolated.

June 10th, 2018

At E3 2018, Bethesda premiered a new trailer for Fallout 76. It’s a direct extension of the launch teaser, with the company showing us life outside the vault. We’ve learned that the wastelands are still just as ravaged as you’d expect after a nuclear bomb hits.

The trailer doubled down on expectations that Fallout 76 will be focused on the act of rebuilding a society in the rural plains of West Virginia. Players will not only build up houses but also help grow and nurture entire communities. It even tasks you with educating young ones, a sign that we may see some sort of hereditary system. And you might also get to rebuild an entire government.

We also saw the same power armor suits we’ve seen in previous games, some sort of dragon-esque creature flying about, and a handful of rural towns and cities. Bethesda noted that the overall game world would be four times larger than Fallout 4, some of which was on display in the trailer.

Bethesda also confirmed some gameplay details in their own E3 showcase. We got confirmation that Fallout 76 is entirely online, with folks entering the vast wasteland with at least a dozen other players.
You and your friends can build a survival settlement together, help other players, or even get into some sort of conflict with other players you come across. That conflict can escalate quite heavily with the ability to find nuclear keys and use them at active nuclear launch sites.

Despite the heavy online focus, players will be able to play the game entirely solo if they so wish. Bethesda didn’t specifically say they could play offline, however, so there may be some sort of passive gameplay option available to players. And if you do decide to jump into a friend’s game every now and then, you will be able to take all the progress you’ve made (and, presumably, items found) back to your own game.

Fallout 76 will launch November 14th, 2018, and there will be a beta test ahead of the game’s launch for players who want to ensure Bethesda catches as many bugs and fixes as many issues as possible.

If you’re going to pre-order Fallout 76, you’ll want to consider this awesome collector’s edition. Called Poer Armor Edition, those willing to drop the money on it will get an actual Power Armor helmet, complete with a working light and voice modulator. The helmet is even designed to be worn if your head will fit inside.

There’s also a West Tek duffle bag, a glow-in-the-dark world map, collectible figurines, an exclusive steel case, and bonus digital in-game items. There’s no pricing for all of this just yet, but we’d suggest saving at least $150 if you plan on getting it.

What’s Fallout 76?

The Fallout series has traditionally placed players within a post-nuclear world. It’s a survival game at heart, they’re typically open world affairs ever since the third mainline title, and they feature Bethesda’s signature RPG touch, but with a combat twist that’ll make each encounter equally interesting and intense.

You’re typically in control of a character who has spent most of their life within a “vault,” built for sheltering survivors from the effects of nuclear radiation. In previous Fallout titles, these vaults were typically evacuated due to emergency circumstances, with the events forcing you out into the world to fend for yourself. Some of these vaults are moderate in size, but there are a number of bigger ones called “controlled vaults” which house as much as 500 survivors.

The original purpose of these vaults was to have them open exactly 20 years after the nuclear bombs dropped, with the creators looking to compare the survival rate of those who were let out versus those who remained inside. Vault 76 was one such vault, and it serves as the starting point for Fallout 76.

What’s the story so far?

While the trailer nor Bethesda managed to reveal any hard facts, several things within the announcement trailer help us begin to paint a picture. For starters, the game is set in the year 2102, as spotted by the date entered on one of the Pip-Boy units lying around. We’re not sure if the entirety of the game moves on chronologically from that point, but it’s significant for a couple of different reasons.

The first reason is that this will have been the earliest time in a Fallout game we’ve ever seen. The original Fallout took place in 2161. Fallout 2 was 2241. Fallout 3 and New Vegas were 2277 and 2281, respectively. The most recent entry – Fallout 4 – took us to the year 2287.

While the bombs have already dropped by the time 2102 arrived (doomsday was October 23rd, 2077), Fallout 76 should be the purest a Fallout world has ever been, meaning buildings won’t be as worn down, vegetation won’t be as scarce, wildlife won’t be as mutated, and things might not be quite as depressing overall. That’s not to say you should expect an oasis, but it could be the perfect excuse for Bethesda to give us more of a living, breathing world when previous games gave them every excuse not to.

The second reason the year 2102 is significant is because Vault 76 was supposed to have opened precisely 20 years after the first bombs dropped — the inhabitants even seem to be celebrating their “Reclamation Day” at some point — but that date would mark 25 years. That means one of two things happened: the vault did open five years ago and we’re just seeing the abandonment in all its glory, or something terrible has happened that delayed the grand opening. And if you know the history of Fallout games, you know you’ll almost never leave the vault due to some regular occurrence.

Beyond that, Bethesda dropped hints as to the game’s setting. The song playing on the radio throughout the trailer is Country Roads, a country song about West Virginia, and sure enough that’s where the game will take place.

We now know that the player will be among the first inhabitants to leave the vault, and that it’ll be up to them to help begin the slow rebuild of society.

Base building, rodent killing, and online play

The first Fallout 76 trailer didn’t give us any expectations of gameplay mechanics, but some early rumors have given us an idea of what to expect. We’ve heard that the base building aspect introduced in Fallout 4 will return in Fallout 76, presumably with more polish and a greater level of detail. In fact, it may serve as the entirety of the game’s premise (whereas Fallout 4’s felt like more of an afterthought feature). We can see a situation where you’re one of Vault 76’s inhabitants and you’re tasked with building up a settlement to help you and your family survive.

And we’re sure all this base building would necessitate supply and food runs, meaning there’ll be plenty of reasons and opportunities to venture off into the wildlands. Expect a huge bundle of quests along the way that’ll help you gain new companions, gather the supplies you need, and indulge in Fallout’s unique combat system that mixes real-time action and turn-based strategy.

Fallout 76 will not be your typical Fallout game.

Another big detail is that Fallout 76 will be the first ever online Fallout game. Fallout 76 originally began as an experimental project to see if an online component would be right for Fallout 4. While that development never came to fruition for the existing title, Fallout 76 gives them a nice opportunity to take a chance.

It’s suggested that it will be akin to games like Rust or ARK: Survival Evolved, where dozens of players can exist on the same server. In those games, you start off with absolutely nothing in your possession, and it’s up to you to start building the shelter, sowing the seeds, crafting your tools, and marking your territory. There will be both cooperative and PVP elements in play.

But those who are fans of single-player experiences shouldn’t fret, apparently. It’s said there will still be a massive quest line for you to enjoy solo should you shy away from interconnected conflict. That’s sure to be good news for folks who enjoy Bethesda games for their strong single-player stories.

When can you play it?

Bethesda has confirmed that Fallout 76 will launch November 14th, 2018, and you’ll be able to play the game on PS4, Xbox One, and PC whenever it launches. Be sure to check back often for more news and updates about Fallout 76 as we begin the long wait for an eventual release!

Updated July 2018: Added information regarding C.A.M.P., nukes, and griefing.

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Apple’s 6.1-Inch LCD iPhone ‘Possibly’ Delayed to October, OLED Models Still Coming in September

Apple might delay the launch of its new, low-cost 6.1-inch iPhone by one month and launch the device in October, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty (via Barron’s). Huberty cites suspected issues with “LED backlight leakage” leading to the “possible” one month delay in mass production on the 6.1-inch iPhone.

Alleged front glass panels for the 2018 iPhones, with the 6.1-inch model in the middle
The problem was worse in the original production forecast, according to the new report, as there was originally a rumored six week delay for the 6.1-inch device. Now, Huberty says the cheaper smartphone will launch in October, while the second generation 5.8-inch iPhone X and 6.5-inch “iPhone X Plus” will “see no delay” and debut in September. All three devices are expected to be revealed during an event in September.

We currently see no delay in the ramp of Apple’s upcoming flagship 5.8″ or 6.5″ OLED iPhones. However suspected issues with LED backlight leakage have caused a 1 month delay in mass production of the 6.1″ LCD iPhone, although this is down from a 6-week delay baked into the original production forecast, according to suppliers.

The six week delay for the LCD model was previously mentioned in a report earlier this year that predicted the LCD model wouldn’t launch until November 2018, but otherwise the belief has been that Apple will release all three devices in September 2018.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has backed this idea, and in a June report outlined what he believes will be Apple’s pricing plan for the smartphones: the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will be priced at $600 to $700, the 5.8-inch OLED second-generation iPhone X will be $800 to $900, and the 6.5-inch OLED device will be $900 to $1,000.

If the 6.1-inch model doesn’t make a September debut, Apple will likely lose a few sales to customers who are interested in a new iPhone model but still don’t want to pay upwards of $800 in full for the OLED devices. Because of this, Huberty sees Apple delivering a “slightly weaker-than-consensus September quarter.”

This is a similar sentiment that the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus gained when Apple split up their launches last year, although somewhat reversed given that the flagship iPhone X was the delayed device in 2017.

Related Roundup: 2018 iPhonesTag: Katy Huberty
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