Google Pixelbook now on sale for $750, its lowest price ever

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Arguably one of the most powerful and beautiful Chromebooks on the market today, Google’s Pixelbook is now at its lowest price ever with a $250 discount. This brings the cost of the entry level Pixelbook down to a more palatable price of $750 from its $999 price tag when it debuted, and the laptop could be ordered from Google’s online store, Amazon, and through Best Buy.

At $750, the Pixelbook still costs more than twice as much as an entry-level Chromebook, but you also get a faster processor, pen support, more storage and RAM, and a premium Swedish design for your money. The entry-level model comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, 128GB of solid-state storage, and 8B RAM in a convertible form factor where the screen can flip around to transform into a tablet. Google’s discount only applies to the entry-level model. Unfortunately, that means the upgraded Core i5 model with twice the storage still costs $1,199, and the top configuration with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB solid-state drive saw no change to its $1,649 price. On Amazon, the optional Pixelbook Pen is down to $82 from its $99 retail price.

We found a lot of positives when we reviewed the Pixelbook. From the laptop’s premium design and gorgeous display, there is a lot to love. The best feature for productivity is the long battery life, which could easily last a full workday.

Although Chrome OS may be more limiting compared to Microsoft’s Windows 10 and Apple’s MacOS, Google has been investing a lot of effort in turning its Chromebook platform into a suitable PC replacement. Like most modern laptops, the Pixelbook ships with just two USB Type-C ports and a headphone jack, so you may need adapters and dongles to connect legacy accessories, like flash drives. The Pixelbook’s high-end components are more typically found on premium Windows Ultrabooks, and Google’s work on supporting Android apps on the Chrome operating system makes it feel more like a desktop PC. If you’re buying the Pixelbook just for Android app support, be warned that we found that Android apps running on Chrome OS can still be buggy at this time.

Google’s Pixelbook promotional pricing is good through June 17. If you have ever had your eyes on the best Chromebook money can buy, the latest Pixelbook discounts may be tempting. There are also rumors that Google may be refreshing its Pixelbook design, potentially with a 4K screen upgrade, in the future, so the sale may be a tactic to clear out existing inventory ahead of a new product announcement. Before you splurge, you may want to check out our guides on buying the best laptops, the best Mac notebooks, and the best Chromebook devices.

Marvel’s Spider-Man for PlayStation 4: Everything you need to know!

Forget everything you know about Spider-Man video games. This experience is on a whole new level.

Spider-Man is one of the most iconic fictional characters ever created. The web-head has starred in countless comics, movies, TV shows, and video games but not all of them have bee super high quality. While games like Spider-Man 2 are widely regarded as one of the best superhero games of all time, Spider-Man has also been subjected to some extremely bad video games that many of us try to block out of our memory.

With that said, Ratchet and Clank, Sunset Overdrive, and Resistance developer Insomniac Games is spearheading an exciting new vision for the wall-crawler. While we haven’t played the game yet, the studio has proven themselves time and time again and all the trailers we’ve seen look incredibly promising for PlayStation 4 fans this year.

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The Spidey classics, with a new twist

Insomniac has taken great care with Marvel’s golden boy by working closely with comic-book legends like Dan Slott and Christos Gage to craft an original story for Spider-Man. We all know how Peter Parker got his powers, how he struggles to find his footing as a superhero at first, and all that jazz so Insomniac is going to spare us the classic origin story and thrust into the prime of Spidey’s life. Peter Parker is 23, he has been Spider-Man for eight years and has pretty much gotten this whole superhero thing down to a tee.

In the game’s opening, Spider-Man will take down the infamous criminal mastermind, Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin. Insomniac Games has noted Kingpin as Spider-Man’s greatest villain at this point in his career and it’s a massive achievement for him when he finally takes him down. Peter Parker’s apartment is also littered with various details regarding his past encounters with criminals like Shocker and Rhino meaning he has tackled some of his famous villains but the biggest baddies like Venom and Green Goblin may not have surfaced in New York yet.

On the opposite side of Peter’s life where he’s not wearing the mask, things are a bit more troublesome. His relationship with the red headed bombshell, Mary Jane Watson, is on the rocks, he’s on the verge of being evicted from his messy apartment, and Aunt May is put into danger when she becomes close with the charitable Martin Li. Li looks like a pretty swell guy on the surface but he holds a dark secret inside of him in the form of his super villain alter ego, Mister Negative. In fear that Li could hurt those closest to him, Peter begins his hunt for Li while tackling plenty of other criminals along the way such as Taskmaster.

Beyond that, it’s come to light that players will actually be able to play as Mary Jane Watson at some point during the story. Insomniac wasn’t too chatty about what sort of role she would have when playing as her, nor do we know how her gameplay mechanics will work. Another interesting character that the player may be able to take control of is Miles Morales.

More than an open outdoor world

As much as those in Peter’s life are important to a good Spider-Man story, one of the most vital characters is the city of New York City itself. As expected, there will be tons of side activities to tackle such as stopping robberies and other crimes. According to Game Informer, when they went hands-on with the game, there will actually be a good amount of interiors to go inside during these crimes so it’s not like other Spider-Man games where you have to chase after a speeding car or beat up some guys on the street.

To make the city feel more alive, Insomniac has built a Marvel universe within it. Players will be able to find the Avengers Tower, the Wakandan Embassy, and likely other major landmarks within the world to help take the worldbuilding to another level. There’s no word on if any other Marvel heroes will show up in the game but it’ll likely be kept to a minimum as they’re trying to make a Spider-Man game, not build an expansive Marvel games universe.

With a heavy focus on story and developing Peter Parker’s life and world, a lesser team could forget to develop a really solid set of gameplay systems, but Insomniac isn’t taking their eye off the ball.

Dynamic movements, killer combat

Many look to Spider-Man 2 as the best gameplay experience in a Spidey game due to the incredible attention to detail and physics based gameplay. The webs attached to walls, Spidey swung like a pendulum, and there was an incredible sense of momentum and speed building as you zipped through the city. With all of the advancements and innovations in games in the last decade and a half, Insomniac is on track to deliver the best Spider-Man game, perhaps superhero game, to date.

The most important aspect of the character is the way he moves through the world. Spider-Man will be as agile and fast as ever in this new game where he acts like a speeding train that has had the brakes ripped out. In Insomniac’s game, Spider-Man is equipped to adapt to his environment on the fly. He’ll never stop moving if you don’t want him to, the game is constantly making adjustments so you’re speeding through the world as the real experienced “masked menace” would.

It’s some of the more traditional Spider-Man combat with elements of the Batman Arkham series mixed in.

If you’re swinging but you’re about to smash right into a wall, Spider-Man will instead prepare to run along the wall in the direction you’re holding the stick. If you’re running along a rooftop with lots of vents and other objects, Spider-Man will parkour over them. If you’re running up a wall with a fire escape, he won’t awkwardly get stuck on it, he’ll bounce off each individual layer of the fire escape like stairs or propel himself through them if he’s coming at them from the side.

There’s an almost dynamic nature to the locomotion of Spidey in this game. His animations are diverse so it keeps this fun and fluid sense of rhythm, he’ll twirl, move his body in cool ways, and all sorts of other things you’d expect him to do when going from place to place. It’s safe to say that it will probably one of the most beautifully animated games to date when it drops.

As for combat, it’s some of the more traditional Spider-Man combat with elements of the Batman Arkham series mixed in. You’ll have your punching and kicking but you can also use some gadgets to help keep things fresh and make things easier on yourself. One gadget Spider-Man has is a web grenade, it detonates and then strings up any nearby enemies so you can swing in and deliver some cheap shots or pick them up and swing them around with a makeshift silk lasso.

If you’re feeling a bit playful, you can use the tripwire which is similar to the web grenade. It sits on a surface and when someone walks past it, it shoots a web out at them and slams them toward the wall. If you manage to latch the tripwire on to a person instead of a wall, it will smash two enemies together like Newton balls. If you also happen to knock an enemy off of a building, a tripwire will automatically be deployed and activated to prevent a foe from becoming a splatter on the sidewalk down below. The city is messy enough and Spider-Man doesn’t kill so the game will help you out there.

If you’re in the heat of the moment and you’re keen on doing that, players will be able to slow down time briefly and analyze the area for their next move. Is it singling out a guy? Choosing where to throw a gadget? Using an environmental object to defeat some evildoers? It’s up to you how strategic you want to be with it.

Missions, Trophies, and so many different suits

Of course, New York City is known as the city that never sleeps so there’s always something brewing on the streets whether it be petty crimes or full-blown robberies. Outside of story missions, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will get side activities to go clean up the streets. Crimes will play out differently each time so you’re not doing the same repetitive task over and over again so you can grind for that trophy or special in-game perk. According to Game Informer, robberies can evolve into car chases and so forth so it’s always shifting and keeping you on your toes.

If you’re a bit tired of beating people up (you’re a superhero, it’s your job, get over it), you can go and do some of the collectible missions like finding Peter Parker’s lost backpacks. As we saw in Spider-Man: Homecoming last year, Peter tends to just leave his school bag webbed up in alley ways when he has to spring into action. Of course, this can result in some bags being misplaced so you need to go and retrieve some key mementos of Peter’s. The items in the bags will serve as backstory for Peter Parker and fill in some of the blanks in the story as well as give you little trinkets such as the first pair of web-shooters he ever created.

There are other little side activities sprinkled in the world but Insomniac isn’t going to divulge all of them before launch so that there can be some surprises when you play it. Similarly, they were tight lipped on the suit customization.

While it is now officially confirmed there will be dozens of costumes for Spider-Man inspired by comics, other games, and the movies, they’re not revealing many of the suits yet. So far we know that there will be a more traditional suit that you start the game in, an upgraded one with the white spider which supposedly ties into the narrative, the Noir suit, and the Spider-Punk suit.

Each suit has a unique special ability tied to it, the Spider-Punk suit features the ability to pull out a guitar and strum it really hard to create an AOE attack. The other suits have their own benefits but Insomniac isn’t willing to talk too much about them yet.

Oh, and one last thing: they’re including a killer photo mode in the game. Considering Peter Parker is a professional freelance photographer when he isn’t donning his Spidey suit should mean we’ll have plenty of great tools to capture his musings around New York City.

Alright, when can I buy this?

If you’re as excited as we are for this game, you can pre-order the game for $59.99 at most retailers. If you want to go the extra mile, you can drop $149.99 on the Collector’s Edition which includes a nice looking statue, some digital items such as post-launch DLC missions, and a steelbook case.

Spider-Man will swing onto store shelves on September 7th, 2018 exclusively on PlayStation 4, this is NOT a timed exclusive. It will never be on anything else other than PlayStation.

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PlayStation 4

• PS4 vs. PS4 Slim vs. PS4 Pro: Which should you buy?
• PlayStation VR Review
• Playing PS4 games through your phone is awesome

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Updated June 2018: We’ve added new details about playable characters and a Photo Mode that would make even Peter Parker nerd out!

NVIDIA unwraps Jetson Xavier and Issac, an AI and autonomy platform for robotics

NVIDIA is offering a complete turnkey platform to developers for only $1,300.

NVIDIA is not just a company that makes the best Android TV box and great computer graphics cards. The company is also heavily invested in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and has always provided an excellent testbed of products for developers to build around.

It’s only natural then for the company to take things to the next level and introduce a complete development kit for AI and autonomy designed specifically with robotics in mind. NVIDIA Issac, the name of the platform itself, contains a full SDK, development framework and all the tools needed to write, compile, and debug applications that bring autonomy to life in almost any way.

On the hardware side, NVIDIA Jetson Xavier is a new system of components designed from the ground up with robotics applications in mind. It’s powerful, compact, and a full part of the Issac platform. On the system board, you’ll find an eight-core ARM64 CPU, a Volta Tensor Core GPU, two NVDLA (NVIDIA Deep Learning Accelerator) chips, and dedicated co-processors for imaging, vision systems, and video

Together this comprehensive suite of hardware and software makes a complete development platform that will retail for just $1,299. It’s clearly not designed for consumers, but that price should allow anyone or any team to be able to take their great ideas and turn them into a working development model. And that’s how every great idea is born.

Interested parties will be able to purchase an NVIDIA Jetson Xavier development kit in August from a number of worldwide distributors. The kit includes all the hardware and access to the complete Issac software suite. Learn more at NVIDIA’s Issac product page.

Android’s June 2018 security update brings Bluetooth and display improvements to Pixel phones

Monthly update fixes Android security exploits and offers general fixes for Pixel line.

The beginning of the month means the Android Security Bulletin gets published, we learn all about the monthly security patch, and those sweet, sweet updates start streaming through the bright blue sky towards our phones.

There aren’t any singular “big” issues addressed in the June 2018 patch, but there are a set of updates from Google and all the companies who make the various components used in Android phones from every manufacturer. These cumulative updates are the extra layer of protection on top of Google Play Protect and are something we all need to have.

Pixel-specific updates include a handful of minor quality-of-life improvements for things like Bluetooth reception, screen response and several other features of the phone that always seem to get a bit of tweaking.

The factory images are available right now if you’re not the waiting type, or you can just chill and wait for the mellow sounds of smartphone rock & roll to float your way. Or you can start mashing the heck out of the check for updates button, whatever gets you groovy.

How to manually update your Nexus or Pixel

Complete the new Developer Economics Survey: Voice your opinion and win a Galaxy S9!

Developers – Now is the time to share your opinions and enter to win amazing prizes like a Galaxy S9!

Is JavaScript giving you headaches? Do you wish other developers knew how important Swift and Rust will be in the coming years? It’s your chance to turn your opinions into a tool of change! The new Developer Economics survey is open NOW, calling out all software developers to take part. Start right away!

Don’t miss a chance to join over 40,000 developers from 160+ countries who take part in the Developer Economics surveys every year to tell the world where software development is going next.

Who can take the survey?

Pretty much everyone writing code and getting their hands on software development in Mobile, Desktop, IoT, AR/VR, Machine Learning & Data Science, Web, Backend and Games. It doesn’t matter if you’re a hobbyist, a startupper or an enterprise dev — the survey is open for all real developers out there!

What sort of questions are they asking?

The survey is designed to dive into real-life developer issues, from coding skills and favorite tools to satisfaction with learning resources and communities.

Expect questions like:

• Which are your favorite tools and platforms and why?
• Are you getting value from the available dev resources?
• What are your goals for coding?

Ready to take the survey?

Why should you take the survey?

It’s fun, for starters! The survey is designed to reveal your sci-fi profile, so the more you engage, the closer you get to finding out your place in the galaxy far, far away.

Then there are the PRIZES. This time, devs who complete the survey can win stuff like a Samsung S9+, an HTC Vive Pro, an iPhone X, GitHub Developer Plans, Amazon vouchers and other useful things to help you test your work or just play around. You can also take part in the referral program, which allows you to with up to $700 in cash by referring other developer friends to take the survey.

This year we’re introducing a novelty – SlashData will donate funds to a coding charity to support their mission. We want to give back to the community, and we hope this encourages developers to take our survey and be a part of something larger and truly meaningful.

And last but not least, everyone who takes the survey will get insights with key findings from the survey, as well as a free report with the highlights and up-and-coming trends.

If you have a few minutes to spare and want to have a quality time, then this survey is for perfect for you! You can start right here. Extra tip: if you need to take a break, just click to save your responses and then you can come back and continue where you left off.

Good luck!

Take the survey now!

Apple Replaces 29W USB-C Power Adapter With New 30W Version

Apple today quietly discontinued and replaced its 29W USB-C Power adapter with a new revised USB-C Power Adapter that offers 30W.

The 30W USB-C Power Adapter that’s replacing the 29W version is designed for the 12-inch MacBook. It’s also commonly used as an option for those who want faster charging for compatible iPhones and iPads that support fast USB-C charging speeds.

It is not clear why Apple replaced the 29W Power Adapter with the new 30W Power Adapter, but the pricing remains the same at $49. The new accessory is not yet in Apple Stores, but can be ordered today for Wednesday delivery.

Apple has not tweaked its other USB-C Power Adapters designed for the MacBook Pro lineup, with those accessories continuing to be available in 61W and 85W options for 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models, respectively.
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There’s Still No Sign of Apple’s AirPower Charging Mat

Where is the AirPower? That’s the question on the minds of many Apple Watch and iPhone owners as yet another event passes by without a launch date for the accessory.

Apple executives made no mention of the AirPower on stage at this year’s keynote, dashing hopes that a launch date for the device might come alongside the unveiling of iOS 12, macOS Mojave, tvOS 12, and watchOS 5. It’s not a huge surprise, though, as WWDC is a developer focused conference that puts software first.

In past years, Apple has unveiled hardware, but this year’s event was focused on software with the sole hardware product being a new Pride Apple Watch band.

It’s now been almost nine months since the AirPower was first introduced in September alongside the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. Apple at the time said the device would be released in 2018, and while that launch date hasn’t expired, many figured it would be coming earlier in 2018 rather than later.

The AirPower is a unique Qi-based wireless charging accessory that’s able to charge an iPhone (X, 8 or 8 Plus), an Apple Watch, and the AirPods (with a new Wireless Charging Case) all at once.

It’s not clear why Apple’s work on the AirPower is taking so long, but it could be due to the combination of different charging technologies in the device. The Apple Watch Series 3, for example, does not charge over Qi, so Apple needs to merge several wireless charging formats.

We don’t know when Apple plans on releasing the AirPower, but at this point, it could be held back until September, launching alongside the new 2018 iPhones. It’s also possible, though, that we’ll get a surprise press release sometime this summer.

As was predicted, WWDC 2018 was entirely devoid of hardware with the exception of a single new Apple Watch band. Apple announced no new Macs or iPads, despite the fact that most of its Mac and iPad lineup is due for an update. All of these updates could come in September with the new iPhones, or Apple could elect to do another Mac and iPad-focused summer or fall event.

Related Roundup: WWDC 2018Tag: AirPower
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Apple’s iOS App Store Will Top $100B Paid Out to Developers This Week, Ahead of 10th Anniversary in July

During its WWDC keynote earlier today, Apple took a moment to celebrate the upcoming tenth anniversary of the iOS App Store, which opened to the world in July 2008. Apple CEO Tim Cook said that this week the App Store will hit its next major milestone: the money that developers have earned through the App Store will exceed $100 billion.

In total, Cook mentioned that there are more than 20 million registered third-party developers, and more than 500 million customers visiting the storefront on iPhone and iPad every week. Cook went on to say that over the past ten years, the App Store has enabled “countless new companies” and created “tens of millions of new jobs.”

“This is beyond remarkable. The App Store is clearly the best place for you to be rewarded for your hard work and creativity.”

In iOS 11, Apple overhauled the App Store with an all-new look that introduced editorialized content that points readers towards new apps and games each day. Next, Apple is bringing a similar visual update to the Mac App Store in macOS Mojave later in 2018.

There were plenty of other announcements that came out of Apple’s WWDC keynote today, so be sure to head over to our recap post to catch up with the latest stories.

Tags: App Store, WWDC 2018
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Apple to Open Patient Health Records to Third-Party Apps

Apple will make health record data available to third-party apps on iOS devices, beginning this fall. The data, which will require user permission to access, will be kept private and entirely off of Apple’s servers. But it could dramatically expand usefulness of health-focused apps on the platform.

Earlier this year, Apple launched a Health Records service to increase the portability of health records and make them available across participating hospitals and clinics. The idea was to allow patients to download their health records to iOS devices and then easily share them with other practitioners.

The new Health Records API would allow certain parts of user health records to be accessed by apps, with data flowing directly from iPhones and iPads to the apps, with no user health data ever flowing to Apple’s servers.

Apple listed a number of examples for this service, showcasing the potential for the iPhone to literally save lives — something that Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly referred to in the past.

• Medisafe, which helps users remember when to take their medication, will connect with Health Records so user’s prescription drugs can be transferred to the app without manual entry. This will make creating medication reminders easier, and could warn patients of drug interactions because the entire medication roster will (theoretically) be listed in-app.
• Diabetes-management apps could access lab results and combine them with eating and exercise data to help users better manage their disease.
• A healthy eating app could custom-design meal plans based on cholesterol or blood pressure data.
• “With the new Health Records API, doctors can integrate patient medical data into their ResearchKit study apps for a more complete view of their participants’ health background.

Apple has been working for years to better organize health data and to assist users in being healthier. Tim Cook, a fitness and health enthusiast himself, has discussed the potential of Apple’s devices to help users get healthier on numerous occasions — and Apple’s own health-focused aspirations have been documented for more than a half-decade.
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iOS 12 Includes Setting to Disable USB Access When an iPhone Hasn’t Been Unlocked for More Than an Hour

In iOS 12, there’s a new setting that will effectively put an end to law enforcement access to iPhones and iPads using USB devices like the GrayKey box, preventing USB accessories from connecting when it’s been more than an hour since the iPhone was last unlocked.

Located under Touch ID & Passcode, the new setting, which requires a passcode to be entered to allow a USB accessory to connect after an hour, is enabled by default.

You can toggle off the setting to allow USB accessories to connect at any time, but most users are likely going to leave this set to the default setting as there’s not a whole lot of benefit to turning it off. With this turned on, you’ll need to enter your passcode for a data connection to the iPhone using a USB device, such as when you connect it to iTunes on a computer, but charging via the Lightning port will continue to work fine.

The new setting is of interest because it’s an expansion of USB Restricted Mode, a feature Apple toyed with during the iOS 11.4 beta. USB Restricted Mode was designed to disable USB access to the Lightning Connector after 7 days, but iOS 12 cuts that time period way, way down.

Law enforcement officials use USB access to an iPhone or an iPad to connect accessories like the GrayKey box, a tool that plugs into the Lightning port of an iPhone and uses the data connection in an attempt to brute force a passcode.

With the new setting, an iPhone’s Lightning port data connection will not work with the GrayKey box if it’s been more than an hour since a passcode was entered, rendering it effectively useless unless used immediately after an iPhone is obtained from a suspect.

Law enforcement officials are likely going to be unhappy with the changes Apple is making in iOS 12 because it’s going to make iOS 12 devices a lot harder to get into, but from a customer point of view, this setting offers protection from hackers and other bad actors who may be able to get ahold of this kind of technology.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Related Roundup: iOS 12
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