Microsoft patent paves way for a touch- and smudge-free tablet future

While touchscreens are great for navigating on smartphones and tablets, your greasy fingers leave annoying prints on the surface, blurring the view. Microsoft aims to change that, at least on future Surface devices, by implementing a design that relies on touch-free input. This design appears in a granted patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on July 10 simply named as “Touchless input.”

Similar to how Apple’s TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X maps your face to eliminate the need for login credentials, Microsoft’s design would rely on a similar camera that captures a series of depth maps of an entire scene, including a human subject. A detection system built within the device scans each pixel in each map to determine what is static junk and what consists of the device owner.

According to the patent, this process includes “modeling the human subject with a virtual skeleton including a plurality of virtual joints including a virtual hand joint and one or more other virtual joints.” These virtual joints are compared across all captured depth maps to determine a finger gesture based on machine learning. The system can track more than one human user and/or physical objects.

In an example, as the device owner is navigating the user interface, the integrated tracking system is tracking the position of the user’s finger in physical space. The device maps the physical location of the finger to the on-screen cursor. That said, the user can simply move the finger in physical space to move the cursor in the same direction without having to actually touch the screen’s surface.

But the tracking system doesn’t just support simple cursor movements. Given that it can track multiple fingers, users can click and drag files and folders, zoom in and out, pan across the screen, double-tap, rotate, and more. To that extent, Microsoft is emulating mouse functions and physical gestures used on touchscreens and trackpads, only they are performed in the air instead of on a hard surface.

“In embodiments in which the depth camera has sufficient resolution, fingerprints of a human subject may be identified and matched to a user,” the patent states. “In this way, the user can be identified, and cursor control or other computing attributes may be set to preferences associated with the identified user.”

Device configurations may include an additional visible-light camera that may or may not have the same resolution as the depth camera. It would be used to detect the light intensity of a surface using red, green, and blue values, thus adding color to the depth maps to provide more detail. Another configuration would use a “structured light” depth camera that projects a structured infrared illumination.

Microsoft notes that the touch-free control would be integrated into the operating system as a natural user input, joining your typical mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, and game controller. Processing the actual finger gestures via machine vision and/or gesture recognition may be handled on- or off-board, depending on the setup.

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A new digital picture frame is nearly indistinguishable from a real canvas

Back in the 1990s, the idea of having a painting on your wall which was actually a digital display was something only the likes of Bill Gates possessed. Today, digital picture frames are such old news that your grandparents might own one without you raising too much of an eyebrow.

The news, then, that yet another digital display has popped up on Kickstarter is hardly the kind of thing to get your blood pumping — except that Canvia has a pretty darn good hook to make it stand out from the crowd. As its creators describe it, Canvia uses proprietary image processing and built-in sensors which adapt curated art to your room’s ambient visual conditions and décor. To put that into real-world terms, it means that just as is the case with, for instance, a real oil painting on canvas, it will subtly alter its appearance to reflect surrounding light sources. That should make it superior to many digital displays when it comes to showcasing the color, texture, and brushstrokes of a particular artwork.

“All artworks that we see — or for that matter any physical objects — are defined by the amount and types of light they reflect,” Thomas Stimson, vice president of Marketing and Communications for manufacturer Palacio, told Digital Trends. “We, therefore, spent a long time analyzing the behavior of physical art under a wide range of visual conditions, such as natural light, artificial light, low light, and others. [Our ArtSense technology] combines the ‘reflection profiles’ based on these findings with real-time sensor data to adapt digital images of artwork and ensure they behave as though authentic physical paintings or prints.”

As an example, Stimson said that when you cover your windows and turn on artificial lights at the end of a day, Canvia’s display will immediately adapt in a way that means it looks less like a screen than just a regular piece of art.

The other big selling point over regular digital photo frames is the library of content which you can choose to display, rather than only pictures you upload yourself. The service plans to offer a free tier — with works from more than 3,000 artists, ranging from old masters to modern and contemporary art — along with a premium subscription tier adding famous and upcoming current artists, illustrators, and photographers. An accompanying app will even recommend images based on your surroundings and previously expressed preferences.

As ever, we offer our usual warnings about the risk inherent in pledging crowdfunding campaigns. However, if you’re keen to get involved, head over to the Canvia Kickstarter page. A Canvia display starts at $250, which includes a three-month subscription to the service’s premium tier alongside the display. Shipping is planned to take place in January.

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Microsoft’s pressure-sensitive software keyboard is ripe for dual-screen laptops

Microsoft’s work on a new pressure-sensing on-screen keyboard virtual keyboard could make it easier to type on a new crop of laptops emerging this year with dual screens. Intel is working with partners Asus and Lenovo to bring its Tiger Rapids concept prototype to consumers — it’s essentially a laptop that replaces the bottom keyboard portion with a secondary touchscreen. While the second screen adds more versatility for users to view, create, and interact with content, typing on a glass surface will  be a challenge, and now Microsoft has a solution.

According to a patent application that was filed on January 9, 2017, with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and published just this Thursday, Microsoft wants to add support for pressure and gestures to the virtual keyboard to make typing faster.

“Virtual keys are often smaller and tightly packed and the mechanics of typing may differ from the mechanics of typing on a physical keyboard,” Microsoft said of the challenges of typing on glass. “Due to limited space, some key may be overlooked with multiple permutations of a character, multiple user steps or interactions may be needed to specify a permutation of a symbol associated with a virtual key. Generally virtual keyboards are less efficient to use due to obvious differences between physical keyboards and virtual keyboards.”

Image from Microsoft’s USPTO patent filing

So, in addition to being able to recognize that a key has been activated by touch, Microsoft’s innovation also calls for software to recognize if the pressure is hard enough to activate additional commands. For example, touch the key lightly and swipe to the right, and the keyboard will recognize that you’re typing a lowercase letter. Press down hard and swipe firmly to the left, and you can trigger a capitalized word. On virtual keyboards where multiple symbols are packed onto a single key, the swiping gestures can make it easier to use symbols and characters without requiring users to activate the function or alternate character key.

“By using pressure measures for symbol selection, it is possible for a touch input to control which symbol permutation (of a virtual key selected by the touch input) is selected without having to display additional graphics or user interface elements and without requiring possibly slow and elaborate interactions by the user to specify permutations of a virtual key’s symbol,” Microsoft said. Additionally, you can also map multiple key combinations using pressure sensitivity. Microsoft details that for the copy-and-paste functions, you can map it to the “c” key for cut and “p” key for paste. “When one of those virtual keys is selected with an appropriate pressure feature, the function mapped to the virtual key is invoked,” the patent application detailed.

For certain applications, the keyboard can also display additional graphics when a key is pressed to call on additional symbols or functions, Microsoft said, such as a radial menu or a pop-up palette of user-selectable permutation symbols.

While these innovations may be new to the desktop — and convertible laptops and tablets — they already exist in some similar form today on mobile devices. SwiftKey — which Microsoft acquired — creates a software keyboard for mobile platforms that makes it easy to enter alternate keys and symbols on a touchscreen by using a more primitive pressure-sensitive approach similar to the one Microsoft described in its patent filing. Microsoft is also bringing SwiftKey‘s swiping keyboard to Windows 10.

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Photoshop power in a mobile app? Report suggests full Photoshop coming to iPad

The move to split Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic gave mobile photographers a majority of Lightroom’s tools on a mobile device — and a new report suggests Adobe could be bringing a fuller version of Photoshop to the iPad. Anonymous sources from inside the company recently told Bloomberg that the software giant is working on a full Photoshop app for iPad.

Adobe did not confirm or deny the rumors, though Adobe’s Creative Cloud chief product officer told Bloomberg that the company is aspiring to create a cross-platform Photoshop along with other programs. If Adobe does, in fact, release a full Photoshop version for the iPad, the move could potentially create the most full-featured mobile editing app yet, while giving photo editors more mobility and a touchscreen interface.

“While we can’t comment on any specific rumors or speculation, Adobe has always supported customer needs on the platforms and devices that are essential to them, and we’re committed to enabling workflows that unleash cross-platform creativity for all,” an Adobe spokesperson told Digital Trends.

Currently, Adobe offers a limited number of Photoshop tools inside mobile apps like Photoshop Express, Photoshop Fix, and Photoshop Mix. The mobile apps, however, lack the Photoshop prowess of the desktop software. Photoshop Express, for example, lacks layers, a necessary tool for the more intricate Photoshop editing.

Multi-device compatibility has been a major focus for Adobe’s latest products, after splitting Lightroom in order to create a program (almost) identical across mobile and desktop applications. While Lightroom CC is catching up to the original, Lightroom Classic still has a handful of tools that are not available across mobile devices.

Following the Lightroom split, Project Rush is slated to bring more video editing tools to mobile devices. While not as full-featured as Adobe Premiere Pro, the company’s major video desktop editor, Project Rush includes a few more options than the mobile Adobe Premiere Clip.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud is designed for working on one project from multiple devices, but the limited computing abilities inside mobile devices mean the mobile apps don’t have the same features as the desktop software. But as the mobile Lightroom CC demonstrates, mobile technology is starting to close some of those gaps. Time will tell if the iPad is ready to handle a full version of Photoshop — the rumors suggest an October announcement and 2019 release.

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Photoshop power in a mobile app? Report suggests full Photoshop coming to iPad

The move to split Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic gave mobile photographers a majority of Lightroom’s tools on a mobile device — and a new report suggests Adobe could be bringing a fuller version of Photoshop to the iPad. Anonymous sources from inside the company recently told Bloomberg that the software giant is working on a full Photoshop app for iPad.

Adobe did not confirm or deny the rumors, though Adobe’s Creative Cloud chief product officer told Bloomberg that the company is aspiring to create a cross-platform Photoshop along with other programs. If Adobe does, in fact, release a full Photoshop version for the iPad, the move could potentially create the most full-featured mobile editing app yet, while giving photo editors more mobility and a touchscreen interface.

“While we can’t comment on any specific rumors or speculation, Adobe has always supported customer needs on the platforms and devices that are essential to them, and we’re committed to enabling workflows that unleash cross-platform creativity for all,” an Adobe spokesperson told Digital Trends.

Currently, Adobe offers a limited number of Photoshop tools inside mobile apps like Photoshop Express, Photoshop Fix, and Photoshop Mix. The mobile apps, however, lack the Photoshop prowess of the desktop software. Photoshop Express, for example, lacks layers, a necessary tool for the more intricate Photoshop editing.

Multi-device compatibility has been a major focus for Adobe’s latest products, after splitting Lightroom in order to create a program (almost) identical across mobile and desktop applications. While Lightroom CC is catching up to the original, Lightroom Classic still has a handful of tools that are not available across mobile devices.

Following the Lightroom split, Project Rush is slated to bring more video editing tools to mobile devices. While not as full-featured as Adobe Premiere Pro, the company’s major video desktop editor, Project Rush includes a few more options than the mobile Adobe Premiere Clip.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud is designed for working on one project from multiple devices, but the limited computing abilities inside mobile devices mean the mobile apps don’t have the same features as the desktop software. But as the mobile Lightroom CC demonstrates, mobile technology is starting to close some of those gaps. Time will tell if the iPad is ready to handle a full version of Photoshop — the rumors suggest an October announcement and 2019 release.

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Apple patent hints at better gesture control on the Apple Watch

It looks like Apple is working hard at giving users new way to control the Apple Watch. While these days the Apple Watch is largely controlled by the touchscreen, one day it may also give users extensive control through different gestures, according to a new Apple patent.

The patent, called “Motion and Gesture Input From a Wearable Device,” discusses a wearable device with a series of photodiodes that can sense light through a user’s skin. As the tissue in the wrist expands and contracts, the device can recognize patterns, and hence recognize that a user is performing a particular gesture — all without any use of a camera.

According to images in the patent, the Watch would make use of light sources and sensors on both sides of the wrist — so it might mean that special Apple Watch bands with lights and light sensors built in would need to be developed and worn.

Using this tech, Apple could track the movement of not just the user’s wrist, but also their fingers, hand, and arm — meaning a huge range of gestures could be used for controlling the Apple Watch. But the system could have implications far beyond simply controlling your device. For example, a deaf person could sign a sentence, which could then be translated to written or spoken English for someone who doesn’t understand sign language. It could also be used for better activity motion tracking.

Of course, the tech does face some hurdles. For starters, the Apple Watch already has issues with battery life — and it’s likely that constantly illuminating your wrist would draw even more battery. Because of that, we think it’s probably unlikely that Apple will deploy this tech in the consumer version of the Apple Watch any time soon.

It’s important to note that this is a continuation of patents that date back to 2015, so it’s clear that Apple has been working on the tech for a while now. As usual, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll ever see the company make use of the tech — just that it’s something Apple has been considering and developing over the past few years.

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Dell G3 Gaming Laptop review

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Dell G3 Gaming Laptop

No one likes to make compromises, but with gaming laptops, it’s inevitable. When you head into the sub-$1,000 range, they become even more significant, often ruling them out from receiving a recommendation from us.

Yet the Dell Inspiron 15 5000 series has often been the exception, and its often earned honors as our favorite budget gaming laptop. Now, Dell has re-launched the product line, changing the name to Dell G series – which includes the Dell G3, G5, and G7. They start as low as $750 (currently on sale for $680). Our $850 configuration of the Dell G3 came packing an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti and a 128GB SSD.

Cutting corners can be a risky business, but our time with the G3 has shown that Dell knows what features matter to gamers on a budget.

Oh, this is a gaming laptop?

Dell is known for its cutting-edge design in laptops like the XPS 13 or 15, shrinking chassis’ and bezels like nobody’s business. You might’ve laid eyes on the Dell G7, which comes in a pristine “Alpine” White colorway. Unfortunately, not much of that style has found its way to the less expensive G3. Between the lid, Dell logo, backlit keys, and keyboard deck, there’s four different shades of blue — and it’s a few too many. It also has thick bezels around the display, reinforcing the outdated aesthetics of the laptop.

Still, it’s nondescript at worst. It doesn’t make a fool of itself with cheap chrome and red color swatches, a trap a lot of budget gaming laptops fall for.

Riley Young/Digital Trends

What it lacks in distinctive style the G3 makes up for in build quality. The plastic chassis is reinforced in all the right places. Even the hinge felt sturdy, making it easy to open and close with one finger.

The 15-inch version we tested was reasonably svelte considering the price and the hardware inside. At 5.6 pounds and 0.89 inches thick, it’s nowhere near as portable as the Dell XPS 15 or Razer Blade, but it cuts the bulk from the previous iteration. It’s mobile enough to throw in your backpack, but not enough that you won’t notice the extra weight.

No frills necessary

The keyboard on Dell’s budget gaming laptops have always been good, and once again, this is a keyboard we enjoyed.

The display isn’t worst-in-class, but it’s disappointing by modern standards.

It’s no gaming keyboard, though it has some of clicky, tactile feel that gamers love. The keys don’t feel loose and the bottoming action isn’t sloppy or soft. The layout is good, though we would have preferred to remove the numpad and enlarge the keys. While we aren’t the biggest fan of the color of the backlighting, it’s bright and evenly lit.

The touchpad doesn’t fare as well. It’s not glass, so tracking doesn’t feel accurate, which you’ll notice most in detailed work like selecting text or carefully moving windows. It supports Windows Precision drivers for fancy multi-touch gestures, but that only highlights the sub-par touchpad surface.

Dell has removed the physical buttons this time around, which we like, though the click is loud and overly stiff. It’s also wobbly, resulting in frequent mis-clicks. Gamers won’t be caught dead using the touchpad while gaming anyway, though, so saving a few bucks here isn’t the worst idea.

Riley Young/Digital Trends

The ports favor those gamers need like Ethernet, HDMI, and plenty of USB for peripherals. Dell even threw in a full-sized SD card slot for good measure. What’s missing here is Thunderbolt 3, taking external GPUs off the table. Even its predecessor featured at least a USB-C port, but here you’re stuck with USB-A accessories.

The display that’s just barely good enough

Budget gaming laptops are notorious for bad displays. Unfortunately, Dell continues the trend here. The display isn’t worst-in-class, but it’s disappointing by modern standards. The most egregious problem is in color, where it shows 62 percent of the sRGB color space, and only 46 of Adobe RGB. The result is a rather dull screen that lacks saturation, and it shouldn’t be used for something like photography or graphic design.

In games, the display’s poor color is noticeable, but not distracting. A game like Battlefield 1 hinges a lot on the visual quality of its environments — and when you crank up the graphics settings, it really can be beautiful. On the G3, the display’s dullness does impact the experience, making the grim game world feel flatter than it would on a better screen. It’s certainly not enough to ruin the gaming experience on the G3, but you must understand that an affordable gaming laptop forces a compromise in image quality not found on most models sold above $1,000.

Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. The 1080p screen is bright enough, maxing out at 251 nits, and contrast is better than some expensive gaming laptops like the Alienware 17 or Digital Storm Equinox. The screen also boasts good viewing angles. We can charitably describe it as functional.

Riley Young/Digital Trends

The internal speakers are another aspect of the laptop that will go underused by gamers who’ll prefer to use headphones or external speakers. What’s here isn’t terrible, but it’s not great, either.

Excellent performance, minus the storage

The G3 features the Core i5-8300H CPU, a 45-watt Intel chip that’s commonly found in budget gaming laptops like this one. It’s not the most efficient processor in the world, but it’s a huge improvement over the 7th-gen chip used in the G3’s predecessor. With a greatly increased multi-core score in our Geekbench tests, the G3 can better handle heavily multi-thread software, including games that are programmed with quad-core chips in mind.

The strength of the processor is revealing in real-world usage. We encoded a 4K video in Handbrake on the Dell G3 in just three minutes and thirty seconds. That’s only a handful of seconds behind the Core i7-8750H in the Razer Blade or Digital Storm Equinox, while also a whole minute and half faster than U-series in more conventional ultrabooks like the Razer Blade Stealth.

Our configuration came with 8GB of RAM, which was plenty of memory to handle the other components included. It is removable, but with one only slot, your future upgrade options are more limited. An additional slot is featured in other configurations, but it’ll bump up your price a bit.

All the compromises made in design, storage, and display have helped Dell to keep the price low — and performance high.

As for storage, Dell offers a wide variety of options. Starting at rock bottom you can buy the $680 model with only a spacious, but slow “hybrid” disk drive. We didn’t test it out, but don’t expect it to be as fast as a standard solid state drive. Fortunately, our unit came with a 128GB SK Hynix SATA SSD, in addition to the 1TB old-school HDD. The SSD had an average read speed of 500 megabytes per second and a write speed of 209 MB/s.

It’s not a lot of space, nor is it fast as the PCIe drives you’ll find in more expensive laptops, but this is where the rubber meets the road with budget configurations. Both drives are accessible and removable, should you ever want to swap them out in the future.

The GTX 1050 Ti is a performer

You might be wondering if you can enjoy play games on an $800 laptop. And we don’t mean scoot by playing Rocket League on Medium settings. We mean really game. Thankfully, all the compromises made in design, storage, and display have helped Dell to keep the price low — and performance high.

At the center of that performance is the Nvidia GTX GeForce 1050 Ti, which is solid choice for a budget gaming laptop like this one. It can be configured with either the Nvidia GTX GeForce 1050 or 1060 as well, but the 1050 Ti handles both games and benchmarks well. In 3DMark Fire Strike, the Dell G3’s 1050 Ti landed right between the 1050 and the 1060. But more importantly, games on the Dell G3 feel really snappy.

We struggled to get playable framerates in 4K with settings not lowered to the bottom, but if you stick with 1080p, you’ll be quite happy with the results. In Battlefield 1 with settings maxed, the G3 cranked out 60 frames per second — and the same goes with Fortnite. We were delighted to see how responsive gameplay felt in games like these where response time is critical.

Nate Barrett/Digital Trends

The only real hurdle was Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, an infamously challenging game. At Ultra, the G3 struggled to rise passed 25 FPS, and even with the settings lowered to High, it managed a barely-playable 34 FPS. In demanding games like this, you’ll want to move up to the GTX 1060 for smoother gameplay.

Better battery life, but still not great

You can’t expect great battery life out of a gaming laptop. Even high-end models like the Alienware 17 R5 max out below four hours of juice. The Dell G3, with its 56 watt-hour battery, performed honorably for what it is and makes an improvement on the previous iteration.

As is common, the G3 did best in our video battery test, lasting for five hours and 43 minutes with a looping 1080p clip with the screen measured at 100 lux. For our iMacro web browsing, the G3 trucked on for five hours and 18 minutes, which again, isn’t all that shabby compared to average gaming laptops.

Dell G3 Gaming Laptop Compared To

Digital Storm Equinox

Acer Nitro 5 Spin

Dell Inspiron 15 7577

HP Omen 15

EVGA SC17 1080

Razer Blade Pro (2017)

Origin EON15-S

Asus ROG Zephyrus

Razer Blade (2017)

Alienware 13 R3

Asus ROG G501

Digital Storm Triton

AVADirect Clevo P157SM-A

Alienware M14x (2012)

Origin Eon 17-S

While that’ll dip significantly while playing games, it’s nice to know you can take it away from the wall for more than few hours at a time. You’ll have to spring for something like a Razer Blade if you need a gaming laptop with close to all-day battery life.

Our Take

The Dell G3 Gaming Laptop isn’t perfect, but it’s the best of its breed. The compromises Dell makes to keep performance high and price low don’t sacrifice the usability of the laptop in the ways that matter. If there is one area where the compromise feels overreaching, it’s the display. We’d like to see another budget gaming laptop come along and up the standard, but so far, the G3 is your best option at this price point.

Any alternatives?

You don’t have a lot of options for gaming laptops at this price, especially not ones that compete directly with the price of the Dell G3. The HP Omen 15t Gaming comes close at $900, though that’s without an SSD, and it’s far uglier. The same goes with the Asus TUF Gaming FX504.

Instead, take a good, hard look at the different configurations of the Dell G3. Between the G3, G5, and G7, there are a nearly endless variety of options of GPUs and storage options. Even the options just over $1,000 provide a strong bang-for-your-buck value.

How long will it last?

The Dell G3 comes with a standard one-year warranty, which isn’t great — however, it’s what we’ve come to expect from large manufacturers (that aren’t Apple). While its components are all up-to-date, the missing USB-C port makes it a bit less futureproof. The replaceable memory and storage do ensure that you can upgrade in the future when you’re ready.

Should you buy it?

Yes. For gaming on the go at under $1,000, the Dell G3 is your best option.

Scientists gave gerbils a futuristic ear implant that lets them hear light

You may have heard of the condition synesthesia, which describes the cross-wiring of the brain’s senses that can lead to people hearing colors, seeing sounds, and assorted other unusual phenomena. Researchers at Germany’s University Medical Center Göttingen have demonstrated a useful variation on this idea: A technique that involves using flashes of light to restore hearing. As researcher Dr. Marcus Jeschke told Digital Trends, it allows subjects — in this case, gerbils — to “actually hear light.”

Their demonstration involved injecting the ears’ cochlea with a virus that genetically codes the cells to be sensitive to light. The researchers then implanted optical fibers to deliver light to the neurons. It proved effective, and the researchers were able to show that the animals experienced light from these optical fibers as sound. Going forward, they hope that this technique could be used to make superior cochlear implants for humans.

“Hearing loss is a big problem for many people,” Jeschke said. “It’s also a problem that pretty much all of us will face during our lifetime. As you get older, you hear less and less well. You may end up hearing so poorly that you need a hearing aid or an implanted hearing system. What we’ve been doing is trying to come up with a way to make cochlear implants work better, and we’ve done that by using light to stimulate the auditory nerve neurons, thereby providing patients with a much finer frequency resolution. That means more sound information channels.”

This higher-resolution sound is important for future cochlear implants since current models can often make hearing sounds in certain contexts difficult — for instance, conversation in a crowded room. Right now, the research is still in its embryonic stages, and Jeschke noted that there is much more to be done before this can be applied to humans in the form of clinical trials.

“There are two main next steps for us,” he said. “The first is to understand much better how the auditory system is activated by this light stimulation in the cochlea. We need to know how, if at all, it differs from normal auditory stimulation. The second is to transfer this beyond rodent models. There’s a big step in going from a rodent to a human model. We need to find a step in between, where we look at a nervous system and an immune system that is much closer to that of a human.”

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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U.S. government signs an agreement with ZTE to lift export ban [Update]

ZTE will once again be able to conduct business with American component vendors.

Updated July 13, 2018: It’s official! Just a day after ZTE signed its agreement with the DOC, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced that the ban on ZTE has officially been lifted. The past three months have undoubtedly put a damper on ZTE, but at least it’s finally done with this massive setback.

ZTE’s woes in the U.S. are about to come to a close. The Chinese telecommunications giant has signed an agreement with the Department of Commerce that will lift the export ban — which will allow ZTE to do business with American suppliers like Qualcomm. ZTE was issued a denial order in April after it was revealed that the manufacturer violated sanctions against North Korea and Iran.

ZTE is now required to complete a $400 million escrow payment, following which the ban will be lifted:

Our statement on #ZTE and the escrow agreement: pic.twitter.com/w0Bbej1mAU

— U.S. Commerce Dept. (@CommerceGov) July 11, 2018

The three-month saga is estimated to have cost ZTE upwards of $3 billion, according to Bloomberg. The company had to appoint a new chairman and replace its senior management, and while the export ban is set to be lifted, ZTE could face further penalties from the U.S. Senate.

Best Amazon Prime Day Deals 2018

The celebrations have already begun!

Amazon Prime Day doesn’t officially begin until July 16 at 3pm ET, but that hasn’t stopped the company from beginning the deals a little bit early. Alongside the announcement, Amazon stated that a few deals would be available instantly for Prime members, and there are a few that you definitely won’t want to miss. In the coming days, we expect to see more deals leak, and our continuously updated tracker will highlight all the best Amazon Prime Day deals.

Be sure to check back often, as this page will be constantly adding fresh new deals. If you’re looking for deals on Amazon’s Echo hardware, Kindle Unlimited, Prime Pantry and more, we’ve got you covered.

Prime Exclusive Deals of the Day

In the lead-up to Prime Day, Amazon has switched over its Gold Box deals of the day to be all Prime member exclusive deals. Unlike some of the offers below, these prices expire at the end of the day, so you won’t have much time to think about them.

Today’s deals include:

• Women’s sleepwear and intimates – Starting at $10
• Cauldryn Fyre temperature-controlled vacuum-insulated bottle – Starting at $90
• Soylent Meal Replacement 12-pack 14-ounce strawberry shakes – Starting at $25
• Dyson Ball Multi-floor Upright Vacuum Cleaner refurbished – Starting at $150
• Intex Pillow Rest Raised twin-sized airbed with electric pump – Starting at $34
• Mayfair Linen 100% Egyptian cotton 800 thread count white queen sheet set – Starting at $49
• Anker speakers, headphones, and mini projectors – Starting at $20
• Flybar Pogo Ball trick board – Starting at $19
• Calvin Klein shoes, accessories, and fragrances – Up to 50% off
• Keezel premium wireless portable VPN and 8000mAh power bank – Starting at $172
• Spikeball sport sets and balls – Starting at $8

Echo Hardware

To kick things off, the company slashed $100 on the price of the Echo Show, dropping it down to just $129.99. This is the lowest we’ve ever seen it go and makes it the same price as the smaller screened Echo Spot. We’ve seen Amazon offer Voice Shopping exclusive deals in the past during Prime Day, so if you don’t have an Alexa device, or want another, this is a no-brainer purchase.

The Echo Dot is also down to $34.99, which is the lowest we’ve seen it hit this year.

Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Music Unlimited

If you’ve yet to try out Amazon’s Music Unlimited service, you can get a four-month membership for just $0.99. That’s right, all four months of unlimited access to all the music in the company’s library (which is rather extensive) for just one dollar. Prefer to read books instead of listening to music? No worries, Amazon has three months of Kindle Unlimited available for $0.99 as well. This gets you access to over a million book titles, and you can read as many of them as your heart desires during that time frame.

You can also go all-in on a Kindle Unlimited subscription and save 40% when you checkout with the coupon code PDKU18. This drops the one-year subscription down to $80.32 and the two-year subscription to $143.86. If you want to just buy a few books, you can get $10 towards any Kindle, print, or Audible book purchase when you buy any Kindle book for $5 or more before July 15.

Audible

Through the end of July, Amazon is offering Audible subscriptions at just $5 per month to new and returning members. The deal will remain active for three months, after which the service will begin billing you at its regular monthly price of $14.95. You can also choose to cancel the service at any time if you decide it’s not for you.

Amazon’s In-house brands

Amazon has a bunch of its own brands, and right now it’s offering 20% off home, kitchen, and other AmazonBasics gear, 30% off Amazon Elements multivitamins, and up to 25% off Stone & Beam furniture. There are a bunch of other Amazon brands from AmazonFresh to Mama Bear and Goodthreads that will also have discounted items available.

Twitch Prime Games and Gear

For the gamers out there, Amazon is offering a free PC game each day through July 18 via Twitch Prime. There are popular titles like Pillars of Eternity, Q.U.B.E, Hue, and more. You’ll also get exclusive in-game look for Warframe and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and if you’re looking to load up on Twitch apparel, the merch is 50% off right now.

Prime Credit Cardholder Offers

Normally, the Amazon Prime Store Card and Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card extend shoppers 5% cash back on all Amazon.com orders. You can put the cash back rewards towards your monthly statements or a future Amazon purchase.

Last year during Prime Day, Amazon upped its cash back offer from the standard 5% to 20% on thousands of items exclusively for cardholders. That means smart deal hunters with an Amazon Prime Store Card or Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card were essentially saving an additional 15% on Prime Day. Eligible items included GoPro action cameras and Garmin fitness trackers. In fact, Amazon’s already running some bonus cash back offers for cardholders including 10% back on LG 4K OLED TVs and 20% back on the GoPro Hero action camera.

What’s more, Amazon is sweetening the pot by throwing in a free gift card upon approval. New Prime Store cardholders will receive a $20 gift card, while Prime Rewards Visa cardholders will get a $70 gift card. Both the credit card and gift card are automatically loaded into your Amazon account following the approval process, meaning if you apply now both will be ready to use during the big event.

American Express Rewards points

We already know that we will see millions of deals across the world on Prime Day, but did you know that you could drop the prices even lower by just shopping with your American Express points? Amazon frequently offers an additional percentage off select purchases when you checkout and pay for part of the transaction using your Rewards points, and come Prime Day, the company is offering 20% off on a variety of items.

When it comes to saving money, this may be one of the easiest ways you’ll be able to do it on Prime Day. The first step is to head to this page and click to activate the offer. Once the offer is activated, you’ll want to make sure that your American Express card is one of the payment methods in your account, and that you have linked your accounts successfully. The last, and easiest part, is to find an eligible item, add it to your cart, and pay using at least one American Express Reward point.

This discount can be redeemed on any item physical goods that are sold and shipped by Amazon. You won’t be able to redeem it on items sold by third parties, digital goods, or Amazon gift cards. It can only be redeemed once and has a maximum benefit of $100. The offer is currently live, so if there is something you want to buy now, you can save 20%. The promotion can end at any time, so be sure to activate the offer now and link your accounts to avoid missing out.

Of course, to take advantage of any of these offers you need to be an Amazon Prime member. If you aren’t already, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial so you can access all these deals and save during the big event.

The Thrifter team is going to be covering ALL things Prime Day, and you won’t want to miss out. Sign up now to have tips, tricks, deals, and more delivered right to your inbox.