The best vape pens for cannabis concentrates

Vaping concentrates – or “dabbing” — has become significantly more popular in recent years, especially among those that use cannabis for medicinal purposes. In order to vaporize cannabis concentrates it requires quite a bit of heat, something that you’re not going to be able to do with a lighter alone.

The only source of heat that can get your pipe hot enough to dab is a blowtorch, and for many of us (especially the less coordinated among us) that’s frankly just a bit too extreme. Ending up with third-degree burns doesn’t sound like our idea of fun at all, and we’re not even touching on the fact that hauling around dab rig and a blowtorch is neither easy nor discreet.

Vape pens have sprung up as an answer to this problem, and have become quite popular as a method to dab on the go. They fit in your pocket, deliver long life without the need for recharging, and you can’t burn yourself with them (well, usually). There’s hundreds of choices though, and unfortunately that means there are a lot of crappy vapes sharing shelf space with worthwhile ones. To help you out, we’ve waded through the maze of choices here, so read on to find out which ones you should be considering.

Kandypens Elite

Our pick

Why should you buy this: Consistent performance and a recent price cut keeps last year’s top pick at the top.

The best

Kandypens Elite

Great battery life, solid vapor production, and rips smoother than Barry White’s greatest hits.

$139.95 from Vapor Nation

Who’s it for: Concentrate connoisseurs looking for discreteness and power

How much will it cost: $84 (KandyPens)

Why we picked the Kandypens Elite:

When the Elite debuted in 2017, it was one of KandyPen’s top-of-the-line pens. It also came with an equally top-of-the-line price at $140, though. Recently, that’s changed: Kandypens cut the price by 40 percent, and at the current price, the Elite is just too good to pass up.

The Elite ships with two different coils, one ceramic-lined with a ceramic plate heater at the bottom, and the other one quartz-lined with dual quartz rods. Vapor production is superb, especially with the quartz atomizer, and four different heat settings make very efficient use of concentrate and wax. Whereas we experienced harsh hits with many of the pens we tried, the Elite (and the ceramic coil especially) was smooth as butter.

We were also very pleased with battery life, which was above average when compared to other concentrate pens. The four-level heating options allowed us to dial in our experience to find the sweet spot, which can differ based on the concentrate type and even the experience you’re after.

To date, we haven’t found another traditional pen this year that offers similar performance, so the Elite remains at the top of our list in 2018. The Elite is likely to sell out soon and be replaced by a new top-end device at a much higher price point, so don’t wait too long.

Dr. Dabber Aurora

The best for beginners

Why should you buy this: The Aurora kit gives you everything you need to get started

The best for beginners

Dr. Dabber Aurora

The Aurora Kit gives those new to concentrates a solid platform to experiment on.

$99.99 from Vapor Nation

Who’s it for: Newbies to concentrates

How much will it cost: $100

Why we picked the Dr. Dabber Aurora:

Dabbing can be a little intimidating for even the seasoned cannabis user: it really is a totally different world. For those looking for a solid place to start, the Aurora is as simple as it gets. Instead of threaded pieces that screw together, everything on this rig is magnetic. You can literally switch between coils within seconds. The mouthpiece (it comes with two: a traditional rounded one and a fluted version) isn’t magnetic, but is nonetheless easily removable and interchangeable.

One of our biggest gripes with the Kandypens Elite is the fact that you need to unscrew the battery then attach it to a USB dongle whenever you want to recharge. The Aurora Kit comes with an desk magnetic charger that you only need to lay the device in. That’s way more convenient.

You also get three different atomizers versus the Elite’s two, all with quartz dishes:  one with dual quartz rods, another with dual ceramic rods, and finally a ceramic halo heater.  While we generally found the hits to be noticeably less smooth than the Elite, the ease of use and coil options are great. You’ll also get a dab tool and a silicone concentrate container too, which is always useful.

Dipper

The best designed

Why should you buy this: Dipstick Vapes’ sleekly designed Dipper is more than just a vape pen

The best designed

Dipstick Vapes Dipper

The Dipper isn’t just well designed: solid performance and its unique dab straw functionality are key selling points.

$124.95 from VapePen

Who’s it for: Heavy concentrate and social users

How much will it cost: $150

Why we picked the Dipper:

When we first received the Dipper from Dipstick Vapes, we figured its convertibility between a pen and dab straw would be more gimmicky, and it would likely only do one or the other well. We’re happy to report that we were completely wrong.

The cap of the device is removable, allowing you to switch between a vapor tip atomizer and a quartz crystal atomizer for dab straw use. To use it as a traditional pen, you just screw the quartz atomizer tip in, load your concentrate, replace the cap, and choose between any of three heat settings. In social situations however, the vapor tip atomizer might work better. All you do there is flip the cap to the bottom of the device, screw the tip in, and use the tip to directly dab right from your concentrate container.

Either method works well, with surprisingly smooth hits from each, in line with our experiences with the Elite. The straw might work better for those that might find cleaning out the atomizers after use a pain, and at the higher heat settings with a little practice was producing some pretty heavy clouds.

It comes in a host of colors, including a new limited release “ocean blue,” of which Dipstick Vapes is donating 5% of sales to ocean conservation charities. We’d recommend considering the $175 starter pack, which adds three extra replacement atomizers (one vapor tip – you get one additional in the standard box already – and two quartz crystal tips), a glass concentrate container, and dab mat.

Pax Era

The best for pre-filled concentrates

Why should you buy this: No mess with pre-filled pods, and it provides app control and great battery life — all for just 30 bucks.

The best for pre-filled concentrates

PAX Era

Pax is stepping up its vape pen game with one of the only app-controlled devices on the market

$29.99 from Pax

Who’s it for: Right now, only residents of AZ, CA, CO, IL, NV, OR, and WA

How much will it cost: $30

Why we picked the Pax Era:

There was a bit of a debate here as to whether or not to include the Pax Era. That’s because of the 29 states where cannabis is legal for recreational or medical use, the Era is only available in seven. Pax won’t even ship a device to you if you don’t live in a state where they don’t have a partnership with a grower to produce the device’s pre-filled “pods,” so a majority of us may be waiting a long time to get our hands on one.

This said, for only $30 the Era is insane. Just like the Pax line of vaporizers which have gotten high marks from us for years, the Era also features app control – the same app used for the Pax 2 and 3. You can fine tune heat settings anywhere between 520 to 790 degrees to find your sweet spot and do a host of other cool things (nearly everything you can do with the Pax believe it or not). It’s rechargeable, and the pod system is mess free, although some pods have occasionally leaked. We’ll blame this more on the grower side than Pax, however.

A word on those pods: they contain a half-gram of either live resin or budder, considered by most the two most ‘pure’ forms of concentrate as far as flavor goes. Cost is generally about 10-20% higher than prefilled 510 or 710 atomizer cartridges from our searches – but you’re paying for the convenience and the capability to fine-tune just about everything.

While we haven’t been able to test one directly just yet due to the restrictions, those that have report solid performance and great flavor – and in the states with growers that have direct partnerships with Pax the strain selection is top-notch. And $30? Who can beat that price?! We just ask Pax to give us the option to try it in the other 22 states!

Prohibited 5th Degree

The best of both worlds

Prohibited

Why should you buy this: Prohibited’s 5th Degree vaporizer started out as an average vaporizer. It isn’t anymore.

The best of the both worlds

Prohibited 5th Degree

The Prohibited 5th Degree vaporizer might be a bit of a ho-hum vaporizer by itself, but its new accessories make it a strong competitor.

$199.99 from Prohibited

Who’s it for: Those who want an extremely versatile device

How much will it cost: $200-$360 depending on what you get

Why we picked the Prohibited 5th Degree:

When we first reviewed the Prohbited In the 5th Degree vaporizer last summer for its debut, it was a middle-of-the-road vaporizer with an equally middle-of-the-road price. This is not to say it didn’t perform well: it just seemed pedestrian compared to the other vaporizers we’ve tested.

What we did like is the magnetic cartridge idea, and we did take notice that the magnetic connectors seemed to have different etchings in them. We now understand why: there was more built into this little vaporizer than we knew. This apparently tells the vaporizer unit itself how to operate based on the attachment used.

Two new accessories have appeared since our first tests, including a $60 dab straw attachment which allows you to directly dab your concentrates a la the Dipper, and also a $100 full dab rig setup with bubbler, stand, and three different e-nail options including titanium, ceramic and quartz. For $360 you have just about anything you need for just about any form of inhalable cannabis. That’s not a bad deal at all.

The E-Rig setup is our favorite, and performs as well as most dab rigs, minus all the glass and the blowtorch. They also give you a handy case so you can carry everything with you discreetly wherever you might be headed. Yes, this is a lot of money to throw down for a vaporizer, but it’s pretty much what you’d spend for everything anyway if you were doing it the old-fashioned way.

No, it doesn’t have fancy app control, nor is it going to produce the most massive clouds. But we’ll be damned if there’s anything this complete on the market right now, and even though it’s not exactly a “pen,” we think it has earned a spot on this list.

How We Test

Features/Specs

For each vaporizer, we run down the specs and noteworthy features. No beating around the bush here — we get right to it and explain what makes a particular vape noteworthy from the competition. Does it have a unique design? Is it more modifiable than most? The standard specs/features we go over include:

• Size/dimensions
• Battery size / charging style
• Chamber/reservoir volume
• Heating element type
• Min/max temperature settings
• Connectivity options

Design and Vapor Quality

After the specs, we dive into an honest assessment of the device’s design. Can it fit in a pocket, or will you need to throw it in your bag? How does it feel in your hand? How does it feel in your mouth? Is it comfortable to hold and take a drag from? Is the button hard to find?

Then we turn to the good stuff: the vapor. What kind of temperature settings does the unit have? How accurate are they? Is the vapor smooth, or harsh? Weak, or flavorful? Does it just taste burnt? There’s no truly objective way to relay this information, so we’ve put together a special testing system that helps us land on a more rounded opinion.

Part one is a vapor comparison performed with a reference vaporizer. We puff on both devices interchangeably and take note of the differences. This side-by-side test helps us tease out the review vape’s strengths and weaknesses and gives us a base for comparison.

Part two is a visual test, where we take a good, long drag from the device in question, then exhale it in front of a plain background. We’ll put together a short, looping video of this, so you can see the thickness, color, and consistency of the exhaled vapor.

Battery Life and Maintenance

Over the course of our testing process, we keep a close watch on how long the device’s battery lasts, and let you know how our findings align with the specs listed on the box. Nobody wants to charge their vape every day (that’s what the iPhone is for, right?), so we’ll be honest with you about how long you can puff before it dies.

For higher-end vapes, we’ll also provide some notes on repairability. No matter how nice your vape might be, there’s a good chance it’ll stop working properly for some reason or another after you’ve used it for long enough. If you’re using a cheaper vape it’s easier to buy a new one; if you spent over $100, DIY repairs will be a better option. So for the more expensive vapes we test, we’ll assess how difficult it is to clean or replace parts that are most likely to break/malfunction after prolonged use.

Verdict

Finally, we bring you a TL;DR blurb. We summarize the whole test experience and plainly state our opinion. Here’s what’s cool, here’s what sucks, and here’s why you should or shouldn’t buy it. In a nutshell: Is it perfect for puffing?

Editors’ Recommendations

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At Stephen Hawking’s memorial, his message of peace was beamed into the cosmos

At a memorial service on Friday attended by more than 1,000 people, the remains of renowned physicist Stephen Hawking were laid to rest at England’s Westminster Abbey. As his ashes were interred in the Scientists’ Corner between the graves of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, a recorded composition featuring a message from the cosmologist was being broadcast by the European Space Agency (ESA) into the nearest black hole.

Hawking, a lifelong atheist who pioneered much of the research into black holes and suffered from a rare form of early-onset ALS for many years, passed away in March at the age of 76 .

The memorial stone has now been placed on top of #StephenHawking's grave in Westminster Abbey. pic.twitter.com/bUTgm2UI7U

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) June 15, 2018

The memorial stone placed atop his grave is etched with his most famous equation, which predicts the existence of “Hawking radiation” and a representation of a black hole, along with the words, “Here lies what was mortal of Stephen Hawking, 1942-2018.”

A statement from the ESA confirmed that during the ceremony a composition by Greek composer Vangelis featuring Hawking’s words was beamed to 1A 0620-00, the nearest black hole to Earth. His daughter Lucy said, “Around the time that our father was laid to rest, the Vangelis composition with our father’s voice was broadcast into space. This is a beautiful and symbolic gesture that creates a link between our father’s presence on this planet, his wish to go into space, and his explorations of the universe in his mind.”

During today's Service of Thanksgiving, the ashes of #StephenHawking were buried in Scientists' Corner. Professor Hawking's family placed flowers and a medal in the grave. pic.twitter.com/CgwoVYlDKU

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) June 15, 2018

The service also featured a reading by actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who portrayed Hawking in the 2004 BBC biopic. Members of the public in attendance were selected by a lottery, which more than 25,000 applied for.

According to CNN, the six-and-a-half-minute Vangelis composition was played for attendees at the reception, and it will be released to the public later this year. In a statement on Hawking’s website, Vangelis wrote that he created the tribute in “sound and music, the language that I know best.”

“I imagine he will continue to travel with the same devotion, wherever he may be, in the known unknown. Farewell Professor Hawking,” he added.

The black hole that’s the destination of the broadcast is thousands of light years away in a binary system with an orange dwarf star.

“It is fascinating and at the same time moving to imagine that Stephen Hawking’s voice together with the music by Vangelis will reach the black hole in about 3,500 years, where it will be frozen in by the event horizon,” said Prof Günther Hasinger of the ESA.

Editors’ Recommendations

• John Bain, better known to gamers as TotalBiscuit, dies at 33
• ‘Avengers: Infinity War’: Everything we know so far
• Donald Glover uses ‘Deadpool’ script to question animated series’ cancellation
• The best movies on Netflix right now (June 2018)
• Here’s absolutely everything we know about ‘Deadpool 2’

Google Translate does not hold up well in a classroom or a courtroom

As anyone who has ever struggled in a foreign language class can attest, Google Translate can be really helpful for gaining a surface-level understanding of a phrase or sentence. If you ever trying using Google Translate to actually write or communicate, however, you’ll quickly learn that it gives very literal interpretations regardless of context, dialect or even common sense.  This was the issue at the heart of United States V. Omar Cruz-Zamora.

Cruz-Zamora was pulled over by a member of the Kansa Highway Patrol due to a suspended registration on September 21, 2017. When the officer approached the car, he quickly learned that Cruz-Zamora did not speak very much English, though the defendant was able to prove his legal status.

The officer, Ryan Wolting, did not appear to speak Spanish any more than Omaz-Cruz could speak English, so Wolting relied on Google Translate to facilitate the conversations. Upon learning that Omaz-Cruz was carrying a substantial amount of cash, Wolting used Google Translate to obtain permission to search Omaz-Cruz’s car. During the course of the searching, Wolting found a large amount of cocaine and meth. He subsequently arrested Omaz-Cruz and charged him with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

At the hearing, Wolting argued that he had not given his consent because he could not understand the officer’s questions. The court brought in two different experts to help resolve this issue. Both of these professional interpreters cautioned that Google Translate was not nuanced enough to facilitate a full conversation between two people. For example, if you typing “can I search the car” into Google Translate you’ll get “¿Puedo buscar el auto?” which is technically accurate. But if you type “¿Puedo buscar el auto?” and ask for an English translation, you’ll get “Can I find the car?”

Ultimately, the judge ruled in the favor of Omaz-Cruz due to the fact that the court’s interpreters said that Google Translate provided inaccurate translations and it was questionable rather or not the defendant was truly consenting to the search.

In short, if it isn’t good enough for your high school Spanish class, it probably isn’t good enough for the courts. Of course, Google is working to improve the quality of its translations so that may change one day.

Editors’ Recommendations

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Which Ring doorbell should you buy?

What’s the difference between the four options of Ring Video Doorbell? I’ve used three and can help you pick the right one for your home.

I once said that a $200 doorbell was a very silly thing. I was very, very wrong. Because the Ring Video Doorbell — as well as the Ring 2 and Ring Pro — has very quickly become one of my favorite connected home products. It’s not inexpensive, and it’s not perfect. But it’s paid for itself several times over in terms of safety and security — and just general ease of mind.

For the uninitiated, a Ring Doorbell is a doorbell with a camera. It can detect motion before someone gets anywhere near your door, then alert your smartphone or computer. It has cloud recording (with a subscription fee, of course), so you don’t have to be watching live to see see something that happened. It also has two-way audio — you can hear them, and they can hear you.

Ring also has four options for its doorbells. I’ve used three of them at length, and here’s how I’d approach picking the right one for you:

Original Ring Video Doorbell ($179 at Amazon.)

Ring Video Doorbell

This one’s the original. It’s not small, and it’s not cheap. But it’s what got the ball rolling for a good many of us.

The OG Ring runs $179 and gives you 720p video and two-way audio, along with basic motion detection and night vision. You can hear the folks at the door, and they can hear you.

It’s got a rechargeable battery, so you don’t have to have it connected to low-voltage wiring to keep the internal battery topped off. But if you’re going to charge over USB, you’re going to have to unscrew the doorbell from the wall plate first. (In other words if you have low-voltage wiring running to the door already, use it!)

If you can get a good deal on the OG Ring, it can still be a decent purchase. Otherwise, I’d take a look at …

See at Amazon

Ring Video Doorbell 2 ($199 at Amazon).

Ring Video Doorbell 2

This is the 2017 update to the original Ring. It’s $20 more at $199, and you get a bit more for that upgrade. For starters, the camera now shoots 1080p video. Then there’s the quick-release removable battery, making it a lot easier to recharge if you don’t have low-voltage wiring rigged up. Plus it’s got interchangeable faceplate, though black and silver are your only options right now.

The whole thing’s a little more boxy than the original Ring, but it’s definitely a good buy.

See at Amazon

Ring Video Doorbell Pro

Now we’re starting to get into some sexy tech. The Ring Pro runs $249, which ain’t cheap. But you get something that’s far more inconspicuous on your front porch. That smaller footprint’s a big deal for me.

Along with that, you get 1080p video (on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz Wifi), night vision and motion tracking, and it comes with four swappable face plates.

The biggest difference here is that Ring Pro requires low-voltage wiring. There’s no internal battery, and so your options may be a little limited here. It also means that available power is key — I actually had to upgrade my 1980s low-voltage transformer to get it all to work.

But for my money, this one’s been the best doorbell to date. (And I’ve used all three.)

See at Amazon

The Ring Elite, which requires professional installation. ($499 at Amazon.)

Ring Video Doorbell Elite

If you’re really serious about this stuff — or, more likely, if you’re dealing with new construction — it might be worth taking a look at the Ring Video Doorbell Elite. It’s $500. It’s a “professional-grade solution” that gives you a much more flush look, and it requires professional installation, Ring says. It also uses power over Ethernet (PoE) for the best, most consistent experience.

This one isn’t for everyone — not by a long shot. But it’s also a very cool option to have.

See at Amazon

Jam this summer with Ultimate Ears’ $50 Wonderboom Bluetooth Speaker

Splash around with no regrets.

The grey waterproof Wonderboom Bluetooth speaker by Ultimate Ears is on sale at Dell for just $49.99 right now. It regularly sells for up to $100 in stores, though Amazon has select colors on sale for as low as $63 currently. Shipping for this item is free at Dell.

The Wonderboom has an IPX7 waterproof rating allowing you to submerge it up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. It’s a great fit for the shower, the beach, a picnic, and so much more, as you won’t have to worry about the weather or water damaging it.

It can play music for up to ten hours on a single charge and can be connected to other UE Wonderboom speakers to boost the sound. It sends out audio in 360 degrees so you can hear it well from any direction. There’s an integrated hanging loop letting you easily attach it to a bag or backpack while traveling.

At Amazon, close to 700 customers reviewed the speaker with 4.4 out of 5 stars collectively. It was also named in our Best Water-resistant Bluetooth Speakers list from last year.

See at Dell

Android Go is the right way for Google to reach its ‘next billion’

Android Go is finally the OS that Google has envisioned for great cheap phones.

I’ve been looking at the Alcatel 1X for a few days. Any smartphone that checks in at a cool $100 has my attention, and when it’s said to be a pretty darn good one I just have to check it out. I get fascinated when minimal hardware is made to run something as convoluted as Android. I’ve seen Google and other companies try to do it several times before and only Motorola was able to get it right, but this is a new beast: the legendary $100 smartphone.

Quick hit before a fuller review — the Alcatel 1X is the best way to spend $100. Not because of the display or the camera or even the suede finish; it’s because of Android Go. The software on it works and you can have a solid smartphone experience complete with the apps and services you need. You can even add a few that you don’t need but want to have for a little bit of fun. I was happily surprised at how well Android Oreo could run on hardware that sells for less than a good calculator.

A quick refresher on Android Go is in order here. It’s Android Oreo, complete with all the same Google apps you would find on any Android phone, but everything has been trimmed of every ounce of fat.

Everything that needs to work still works. You can search the web, send a message or email, use Google Maps Go for navigation or anything else you’ve come accustomed to doing on your phone. The apps are just trimmed of extra details and “chrome” (the decorations and borders of controls) so that they all load fast and can run on 1GB of RAM. Android itself has been stripped of anything it doesn’t need for this particular set of hardware and that also cuts extra overhead and makes for a better experience.

You do not want these apps on your Galaxy S9 or LG V30. This is what it takes to make a phone like the 1X or Nokia 3.1 worth buying, but wouldn’t make much difference on a phone that’s able to load and run the full versions of these apps properly. It’s not as good as the experience you get from your $700-plus phone, but it did cost $600 less.

Android Go is what allows a very low-end phone to give the important part of the experience.

I’ll probably take time to talk more about Android Go and definitely have a review slated for the 1X. I’m just mentioning them because you need to know what I mean when I say Google finally got it right when it wants to try to build a smartphone for the next billion customers. The customers in rural India, Africa, or South America; places that don’t have the infrastructure (yet) for a badass 5G network or the economy to support a market for $900 phones. People in these places need a dependable way to communicate and get some digital help for their everyday lives. They need Android Go.

Flashback a few years ago and I was in a developer session from Facebook about building an experience for the emerging market. “Emerging market” is a kind way to say the third world, where extreme poverty can be the norm for more than a few people and hardly anyone has extra disposable income. These folks still want and need the things a smartphone has to offer the same as we do. For that to happen, Google thinks that a $30 smartphone needs to be built and that means very low-end hardware specs.

Facebook has a pretty unique method to try and build a social network for that sort of hardware. Part of it is emulating a slow 3G connection and working on it until everything can load from a remote server in about 10 seconds. You certainly wouldn’t be able to load the current Facebook app in 10 seconds over 3G, and they know it. Something new needs built. Something that can give the core experience people want and need without all the extra nonsense that makes it require expensive phones to run well.

Google has always wanted to serve Android to the next billion users, and with Android Go, I think they can pull it off.

I’m not sure what Google did to benchmark Android Go performance and I can’t try using it on 3G because I live in a country that can afford excessive conveniences like LTE. But I can tell you the software is finally ready for that “next billion”. I know it is because I’m holding a $100 phone that can do everything I need a smartphone to do and it’s all because of the software.

We tend to focus on the more extravagant things Google shows us, like AR apps or digital assistants that can make appointments for a haircut. But Google deserves some praise for what they’ve done with Android Go because it will be a tool that helps a lot of people. Well done, Caesar Sengupta and the entire Next Billion team. Very well done.

Here’s are all the features YouTube Music is still missing

Google’s newest music service may be shiny and new, but it’s still quite lacking.

Youtube Music is a hybrid music service with a lot of promise and an unparalleled library to tap into. Unfortunately, all that potential is held down by how many things — including very, very basic things — the service and its apps are still missing. YouTube Music is already working on some of the items on this list, and hopefully we’ll be able to check off most of these items in the coming months.

In the meantime, if you’re waiting for YouTube Music to improve before you give it a proper shot, bookmark this article. We’ll update it as the service continues to expand and improve.

• Playback
• Library
• Content
• Downloads
• Miscellaneous

Playback

• Better audio quality — YouTube Music is currently streaming at the video equivalent of 128 kbps, and while that’s enough to listen to in the car or a crowded mall, audio quality is one of the most basic features of a music service. They don’t need to get the ultra-high quality 1411kps that Tidal and Deezer offer, but most of YouTube Music’s competitors offer 320 kbps streaming. YouTube Music needs to at least match that.
• “Fill screen” for video mode — YouTube has allowed users of extra-tall screens to zoom videos in and get rid of letterboxed gaps for years. That needs to come to YouTube Music, especially for free users who can only use Video mode.
• Fully functioning Google Cast integration — YouTube Music is a Google music service and has been one of the four services to integrate with Google Home from day one. That it still cannot cast properly is a travesty. Repeat and shuffle do not work while casting, and play order can randomly change when you begin casting a queue.
• A block button — Thumbing down individual songs is not enough. Users need the ability to block an album or an artist on YouTube Music. It will help improve algorithms much faster and help users stop going “God, stop suggesting Chris Brown!”
• Gapless playback or crossfade — Gapless playback is something that most music services struggle with, especially on Android, but now that YouTube Music is chock full of gapless albums, it needs gapless playback. Crossfade would be even better, but gapless playback is required.
• Home screen widget — Third party music widgets can only take us so far, and YouTube Music needs a home screen widget to go with background playback mode.

Library

• Library and playlist sorting — Currently, there is only one way to view any section of your library on YouTube Music: by date added/modified. At the very least, YouTube Music needs an alphanumeric sorting option, and YouTube has confirmed that it is in the works: “We’ll be adding sorting options by at least alphabetical, plus in the future, we will allow users to restrict search to only items in their library.”
• Liked songs, Vol. 2 — All playlists in YouTube and YouTube Music are limited to 5,000 songs. Currently, once you like more than 5,000 songs, you’ll no longer be able to see and manage some of the older songs you liked in Liked Songs. If YouTube Music instead split at 5,000 songs into a Liked songs, Vol. 2, it could help make Liked songs more manageable.
• Shuffle All songs in your library — This is one of the most basic music service functions out there, and on YouTube Music, about the only way to do it is to add every song, album, and playlist to one playlist and shuffle it
• Station management — Once a station slips out of Recently played, the only way to revive it is to search for that exact station again or recreate it from whatever song or album it is based on. Adding a Stations section in Library will allow users to better find and patronize YouTube Music many radio stations instead of always defaulting users to Your mixtape.

Content

• Non-artist user pages — We subscribe to plenty of artists in YouTube Music, but there are a lot of non-artist YouTubers that it’d be great to subscribe to in YouTube, and YouTube agrees: “Yes, we plan to enable non-artist channels to both be visible and able to be subscribed to in the future.”
• Fix search — Many times when looking for an album, you won’t see the album in Album search results, but songs from the album will appear in Song search results. YouTube Music also needs to bring back the official and fan badges in Video search results and needs to better distinguish between international versions of albums that are available in many languages like soundtracks.
• Seasonal awareness — Please stop putting Christmas music in Your mixtape and Offline mixtape in June. I only liked Baby It’s Cold Outside because I was building my library!
• Subscriptions and Genres tabs — Hotlist isn’t that hot unless you’re into a few specific genres, but a Genrestab would allow users of all tastes to find more music they like. YouTube Music also needs to steal the Subscriptions tab from big brother YouTube.
• Play purchased YouTube content — You can buy musicals, musical shorts, and concerts on YouTube via Google Play Movies, but that musical content is blocked from YouTube Music and blocked from background playback in both YouTube apps. Let us listen to that sick Les Mis concert from 2010 with the screen off and add it into our Ultimate Musicals Mixtape.

Downloads

• Choose your downloads location — This is in the works, but until SD card users might not be able to see how much space their downloads take up.
• Ask every time on download quality — It’d be nice to download special videos here and there with video while keeping more pedestrian music videos audio only.
• Cache while streaming — Cache while streaming is a good way to help build up the number of songs you can hear offline without going through and manually downloading a bunch of albums or playlists. YouTube Music needs to steal it from Google Play Music as soon as possible.
• Shuffle all downloaded content — The most useful part of Google Play Music’s Downloaded Only Mode is that Shuffle button it puts at the top of the Home page. YouTube Music needs to steal that button, but could also stand to steal the rest of Downloaded Only mode so that the Home page is still useful when you’re offline.
• Prefer downloaded to streaming — If you download an album/playlist on YouTube Music and start playing it outside the Downloads section of Library, it will stream that music instead of playing the downloaded copy. Once you go offline, it will also stop your music and make you restart your album or queue from the Downloads section.
• Better offline mode — YouTube Music needs a dedicated offline mode that extends beyond the Downloads section, because you can’t even look at the Library tab or Recently played when you’re offline.

Miscellaneous

• Autoplay toggle in Settings — YouTube proper has an Autoplay section in Settings, and YouTube Music needs that, too. Currently, you have to turn off Autoplay from an album or playlist queue that does not have repeat turned on.
• Lyrics integration — If Google can serve up Baby Got Back’s YouTube video with the lyrics below it in Google Search, it can serve up Lyrics in YouTube Music, too, whether what you’re watching is a lyric video or not. This especially needs to happen when you’re casting YouTube Music to a screen; Spotify does this beautifully and YouTube could do it better.
• Audio only mode on web — YouTube Music’s now playing interface on desktop is beautiful. Let users see the album art nice and big without having to minimize the player to avoid distracting music videos while working.
• Casting on web — The only way to cast YouTube Music through its website is to cast the whole tab in Chrome, and however broken casting YouTube Music is, web users need access to it, too.
• Media key support on web — YouTube Music currently supports very few keyboard shortcuts, even compared to the main YouTube site, and you currently cannot use the media keys on most laptops or keyboards.
• Android Auto integration — It is hard to understate how important being able to control YouTube Music in the car is. Android Auto support should not be difficult for Google to implement in YouTube Music, and it is essential.

Your turn

What else do you feel is missing from YouTube Music? What are you waiting for them to add before you make the switch? Tell us in the comments!

What you missed on CordCutters.com for June 16, 2018

Amazon Fire TV Cube cometh …

We’ve got a big week ahead, with the impending release of the Amazon Fire TV Cube. On one hand, we pretty much know what to expect — it’s the marriage of an Echo Dot and an Fire TV. But what we don’t yet know is how well it’ll all work together. And do you really want to control that much with your voice? We’ll see.

But that’s what’s next. This is what you might have missed this week on CordCutters.com.

• Scary headlines about Fire TV malware: Look, the ADB.miner thing is only a problem if you make it one.
• The 2018 World Cup is under way! The World’s biggest sporting event is under way and easily streamable. We’ve got your full first-round schedule.
• The best over-the-air streaming box: We put HDHomerun, Tablo and AirTV up against each other. Controversy ensues!
• What’s new on Amazon Prime Video for July: You can never know what’s coming up too early — we’ve got next months listings ready to go!
• Should we talk about the weather? It’s strangely harder than it should be to watch The Weather Channel if you’ve cut the cord.
• Watch out for fake Chromecasts: You’d think Amazon would be better about stopping this sort of thing.

Introducing CordCutters.com

• The hardware you need
• All about streaming services
• What channels are on which service
• FREE over-the-air TV
• How to watch sports
• Join the discussion

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Summer lawn care and DIY projects get easier with this one-day Greenworks Power Tools sale

Time to make the neighbors jealous.

Today only, select Greenworks 24V Power Tools are on sale at Amazon with prices starting at just $18. If you’re looking to keep your lawn looking nice and trimmed this summer, you do not want to miss out on this one.

Among the deals on Amazon today include offers like a 12-inch Cordless String Trimmer/Edger for $30, which regularly sells for around $50, and this 10-Inch Cordless Chainsaw for $64, saving around $30 off its average price.

Some of these power tools do not come with a battery, which greatly helps you save cash as opposed to some of the bundles which include them. Luckily, today’s sale has a battery on sale in case you’re buying a product which doesn’t come with one; you can pick it up for $37 right now, as opposed to its regular price of up to $70. You can also pick up a battery charger today for $18.

A few of the other great tools on sale include:

• 90/130 MPH Dual Speed Cordless Blower for $52 (was $83)
• 8.3-inch Cordless Pole Saw for $77 (was ~$119)
• Cordless Handheld Vacuum for $67 (was $80)

To get a better look at the products on sale today, make sure to head to Amazon and check out the sale before the night ends.

See at Amazon

To put a quantum computer on your desk, Intel has a plan unlike any other

The future of computing is quantum — or so headlines would have you believe. They’re not incorrect. Yet like the flying car, quantum computing is a technology that’s as elusive as it is enchanting. A computer that can go beyond the simple, binary 0s and 1s of today’s ‘classical’ designs opens a new world of possibility, but the technical hurdles are massive, and no one knows how long it’ll take to overcome them.

That’s not discouraging researchers, however. Quantum computers have reached an important milestone in recent years and piqued the interest of massive companies. Companies you’ve heard of. Companies like Intel, which has shipped Core processors in hundreds of millions of computers across the globe.

An old dog learning some new tricks

Intel may seem an unlikely choice for innovation in quantum computing. Sure, it’s known for its powerful PC processors, but the company’s expertise is concentrated in classic computers built for the x86 instruction set. Intel’s 8086 chip, the first x86 processor, is nearing its 40th birthday. The fundamental underpinnings of Intel’s modern chips harken back to that now-ancient predecessor.

Jim Clarke, Intel’s Director of Quantum Hardware, explained to Digital Trends that the company will continue to lean on past expertise to drive future research, and quantum computing is no exception. During a visit to Intel’s campus, Clarke pulled out a slick, rainbow-like wafer. It looked a lot like those you’ve seen in the news or Intel’s own ads, but this one was different.

Jim Clarke, Intel’s Director of Quantum Hardware, showing off a wafer. Rich Shibley/Digital Trends

“What you see here is a wafer that comes from our 300-millimeter technology line just a few miles down the Ronler Acres campus,” Clarke told us. “We’re doing this wafer with the same technology that we’re using for our advanced chips. And what you see here are basically small spin qubit arrays.”

That’s the company’s quantum computing effort in a nutshell. It wants to advance the technology, just as does Google and IBM, as well as many universities. But Intel has a different approach. It wants to do it with silicon.

“We’re essentially using the same process lines, same tools, same design rules to do this, and that’s an advantage for Intel.”

“There are a total of, I think, roughly 50000 qubits on this wafer,” Clarke explained. “They’re not coupled together so we can’t use them together. But you see the power of using Intel’s advanced process lines. If we can get this technology working we’re going to be making chips that are the same from wafer to wafer, and we’re going to have lots and lots of qubit arrays on any given wafer.”

What Clarke’s talking about is not just production. He’s talking about mass production.

It’s easy to see why Intel would approach the technology with mass production in mind. It’s the only company among its competitors that makes a bulk of its money directly from processor sales. It’s a self-serving goal, to be sure, but one that gives Intel a unique incentive.

There’s many reasons why Google might want to build quantum computer, but selling quantum chips isn’t high on the list. IBM does sell chips, but only to enterprise customers. Intel’s the only horse in the race that might, one day, seek to sell you a quantum computer.

It’s not a crazy idea. As Clarke made clear, “this is running in the same fab that’s doing the cutting edge Core chips. […] With, I’ll say, some different challenges with making the wafers, we’re essentially using the same process lines, same tools, same design rules to do this, and that’s an advantage for Intel.”

Check my qubits, bro

Alright. Intel is interested in building quantum computers with its traditional, mass-production methods, but does that really mean you’ll have a sweet quantum computer under your desk?

Well…maybe.

Top-left, bottom-right: Intel. Top-right, bottom-left: Rich Shibley/Digital Trends.

The big challenge facing quantum computing is the fragility of qubits. Due to the funky nature of quantum mechanics, it’s incredibly easy to disrupt a qubit’s coherence, which makes the whole thing go wrong. Clarke told us even a bit of heat can do it.

“So, what we do is we operate these systems at very cold temperatures,” he said. “We have these refrigerators called dilution refrigerators that are about the size of a 55-gallon drum. And they can get down to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. In fact, we would say they are 250 times colder than deep space.” Hardcore PC overclockers might salivate over such a cooler, but don’t get too excited. An Intel Core i7 wouldn’t work at such low temperatures. It’d likely crack or shatter.

“I’ll leave miniaturization for the next generation, but right now I actually don’t think it’s a problem to have a large system.”

These incredible cooling requirements put obvious limitations on how modern quantum processors operate. You can’t just stick a current quantum rig in a home office. Hell, you can’t even stick one in most labs. It’s a highly specialized field that currently requires highly specialized equipment. Miniaturization will help, to be sure, but the massive apparatuses that are used today won’t fit into a desktop tower overnight. Or perhaps even over the next decade.

Yet not everything about a quantum computer is strange. The device still needs short-term memory, long term-storage, and circuit boards that connect various components together. This additional hardware “just is not at the same part of the refrigerator as that as the quantum chip,” Clarke told us. “In fact, a large quantum chip could very well have a small supercomputer next to it, controlling the information into and out of the actual chip.”

In theory, then, a quantum computer might someday end up looking like today’s desktops, though Clarke certainly wasn’t ready to commit to the idea. He reminded us that today’s computers began life as room-sized devices that accepted input only by punch cards and executed instructions on transistors that were (at least) the size of your thumb. That was over 70 years ago, and it’s really only over the last 20 years that PCs slimmed down to the backpackable size we’re used to today.

“If we think about the first Cray supercomputers in the mid-70s they were probably as large as half this room, and these were the most powerful computers on earth at that time. No one would have thought that close to 40 years later we would have miniaturized these, and more, into our back pockets,” Clarke said. “I’ll leave that miniaturization for the next generation, but right now I actually don’t think it’s a problem to have a large system. If that system is the world’s most powerful computer.”

Freaking out about security

The arrival of quantum computing isn’t universally anticipated with eager acceptance, however. Many modern encryption algorithms, like RSA keys, offer protection, because forcing the algorithm would take billions of years for even the most powerful classical computers. Quantum computing, though, is a different story.

“With RSA keys, we take a number that is the product of two large prime numbers, and you can only access the message or the code or the credit card number if you have both of those prime numbers,” Clarke told us. “That’s actually a very hard calculation to do with a classical computer. […] A quantum computer, because it can access such a large space, could conceivably factor these RSA keys in a very very short time, let’s say a minute.”

That’s unsettling to anyone with an eye for security. The NSA began taking steps to harden security against quantum computing in 2015. To make matters worse, Intel has found itself swamped by a swarm of security vulnerabilities in its chips. Processors were once commonly assumed a relative safe-haven. Many even have “secure enclaves” built-in to offer an additional layer of security against hackers looking to hijack the chip.

Now, that clean reputation has been soiled. Both security experts and consumers are beginning to cast a more skeptical eye on hardware. Does that mean a digital doomsday is approaching? Clarke doesn’t think so.

“Within that the types of algorithms and the requirements for a quantum computer that could do cryptography are actually pretty severe, so we’re probably several years beyond that 10-year timeline to have something that would work for cryptography.”

Ten years is a long time for researchers to prepare for quantum computing’s arrival, and encryption techniques impervious to quantum already exist today.

“An example of a technology that would be quantum resistant would be something like the one-time pads used in World War II or by Cold War spies,” Clarke said.

A one-time pad isn’t a magic pill. Figuring out how to easily share it digitally in a timely manner with minimal overhead won’t be easy – but Intel has researchers working on that problem. Clarke seemed hopeful that new encryption methods will be available before quantum computing becomes common enough to threaten modern encryption.

The next generation

It’s still early days in the development of quantum hardware, but the interest of companies like Google, IBM, and Intel are a clear step forward. Clarke thinks that the company’s experience will give Intel the edge in the race. “We are betting that with Intel’s expertise with the Intel architecture, that sort of expertise at the person level, we can bring those people to Quantum and make headway,” said Clarke.

You’ll have to wait to see the results of the company’s efforts, of course. Clarke spoke of time horizons that covered decades, not years or months. Even the development of top-tier classical processors is a long, tiring business that evades easy solution. It’ll be a long time before you see the Intel Inside label slapped on a quantum chip, but it now feels as likely to happen as not.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Microsoft creates a particle promising a more accurate quantum computer
• Intel, Microsoft using integrated graphics to thwart next Meltdown-style threats
• You may never own a quantum computer, but IBM will still let you use one
• How 20th century check fraud is helping prevent 21st century data theft
• AMD is working on fixes for the reported Ryzenfall, MasterKey vulnerabilities