Facebook and Nike just gave hypebeasts a reason to use Messenger

Nike hasn’t been coy about how much it loves using augmented reality to sell hyped sneakers, since the technology can be used to fight the bots (automated systems) that are so beloved by resellers. And today, at the F8 developers conference, Facebook revealed a partnership with the sportswear giant that will let sneakerheads buy limited-edition pairs through the Messenger app… in AR. To show this feature off, Nike dropped a pair of Kyrie Irving signature shoes during the F8 opening keynote, which were dubbed the “Red Carpet” and sold out within minutes after the Facebook announcement.

The process to get them was fairly simple: All you had to do was open up the Messenger app, chat with the SNKRS bot, enter a few basketball-related emojies and that unlocked the pair of Kyrie 4s for you. After that, a virtual render of the shoe popped up on your phone and you could move around to take a closer look at it before making the purchase. It’s a great, futuristic retail experience that Nike began experimenting with last year, when it launched an AR feature within its SNKRS app for iOS that let users buy an exclusive pair of SB Dunks.

For Facebook, the partnership with Nike is only small part of its ambitions to let brands use augmented reality in Messenger to sell their products. Aside from Nike, the company also announced ASUS, Kia and Sephora as early partners, and chances are many more will join in the coming months. For ASUS, meanwhile, I saw a demo where you can play with the ZenFone 5 in AR and tap on different hotspots of the phone (like the camera) to learn more about its features. The ZenFone 5 probably wouldn’t sell as fast as those Kyrie 4s, but it was still fun to check out ASUS’ phone in a more immersive way than a boring stock image could offer.

We’ll see what else Nike launches in AR on Messenger soon. But for now, you can bet hypebeasts who weren’t using Facebook’s app before are now going to be all over it waiting for the next, limited-edition sneaker drop.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2018!

WhatsApp expands its capabilities with group video calling and stickers

Facebook’s highly anticipated F8 developer conference is underway, with founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg taking the stage to announce the latest updates to come from the social network’s universe. Not only is Zuckerberg sharing new features from the Facebook platform, but he’s also giving us glimpses into what we can expect from companies that now exist under the Facebook umbrella, like Instagram and WhatsApp.

On Tuesday, May 1, Zuckerberg announced that WhatsApp would soon be bringing group video calling to the popular communication app, making it possible for folks to have face-to-face conversations with multiple people at once. Previously, video calling was only available between two parties, but moving forward, we should be able to bring in groups of at least four.

As Zuckerberg noted during his keynote address, video calling is already one of the most popular features on WhatsApp. In fact, the executive said, people have already used about 2 billion minutes of video calling on WhatsApp alone (and Zuckerberg apparently contributes to them, relying on the service to video chat with his young daughters when he’s on the road). With the introduction of group video calling, Facebook certainly hopes that the messaging app will become more popular. This feature, Zuckerberg said, is just the latest in the company’s aims to create “new ways for people to connect privately with close friends, groups, and businesses.”

Indeed, WhatsApp is widely valued by users around the world for its privacy and encryption practices. However, given Facebook’s own recent privacy scandals, one of the key members of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, announced that he would be leaving the company. Zuckerberg addressed this controversial decision at F8, thanking Koum for his contributions. “Jan has done an amazing job building WhatsApp,” Facebook’s CEO noted, calling Koum a “tireless advocate for privacy and encryption.” But in an effort to underscore Facebook’s dedication to user security, Zuckerberg pointed out that when the company acquired WhatsApp in 2014, it did not yet have end-to-end encryption. But now, the executive said, “one of the things that I’m most proud of is that we’ve built the largest fully encrypted communication network in the world.”

In addition to group video calling, WhatsApp will also be offering support for stickers in the months ahead, Facebook revealed later in a blog post. That means that third-party developers will soon be able to offer playful ways to communicate within the popular messaging app, something that Facebook’s own messaging app, Messenger, has offered for years.

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Ugly, weird, and expensive: The craziest phone designs ever

In the time it takes you to read this article, thousands of smartphones will have been bought around the world. A saturated market like this makes it tough for manufacturers to stand out. Sometimes they develop awesome new functionality or gorgeous designs to tempt us into parting with our cash. Sometimes the rush to innovate and differentiate makes them go a bit crazy and create something distinctly strange.

We’ve looked at the good. We’ve looked at the bad. Now it’s time to look at the ugly, or just plain weird. These are some of the craziest smartphone designs we’ve ever seen and all of them are real products that were sold in stores to the unsuspecting public – we’re not including concept phones here.

Craziest smartphone designs

We’ll kick off with strange smartphone designs, but you’ll find some older and weirder cell phone designs further on.

Motorola FlipOut

This Android pocket square came in a series of stunningly garish colors, and the 2.8-inch touchscreen flipped out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The wacky design was supposed to appeal to teens, but the screen and keyboard were both too small to comfortably use. Trying to browse the web on this phone was torture and the camera was poor, but it was certainly innovative and eye-catching.

HTC Rhyme

This purple and plum phone was somewhat patronizingly aimed at the female market. Note the special glowing charm, designed to hang out of a purse and clip to the strap, which would light up to let you know when your phone was ringing. It was actually a standard midrange Android phone with a supposedly feminine paint job and an unusual accessory. If you missed the “lady phone” marketing, you might well have bought one yourself.

LG DoublePlay

Two screens are better than one, right? Maybe not so much when the second screen is just an app tray that splits your physical keyboard in half. This bulky slider was as thick as a brick when closed, the split keyboard was difficult to use. The dual-screen setup was only really good at one thing — draining the battery quickly.

Motorola Backflip

Early touchscreens were often a pain to type on, so the transition away from physical keyboards didn’t happen overnight. One of Motorola’s missing links was the Backflip, which was a fat phone with a keyboard on the back when closed, but you could flip the keyboard around to sit beneath the screen for comfortable typing. There was also a trackpad on the back of the screen, which was perfectly placed for accidentally taps and swipes at unexpected moments.

Kyocera Echo

This chunky phone had an unusual hinge that swung open to reveal a second 3.5-inch screen. You could slide the two side by side for tablet mode — which spread content across them both as though they were one — or use a tiny handful of modified apps that took advantage of the dual-screen setup. The giant bezels made tablet mode a bit rubbish, the mechanism was awkward, and the two screens proved excellent at killing the battery.

ZTE Axon M

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

If you can’t learn from the past you’re condemned to repeat it. We can’t fathom why ZTE decided to bring out what looks and feels a lot like a slightly improved version of the Kyocera Echo, but it did, and the design doesn’t work any better with two 5.2-inch screens. The dividing bezel still distracts, it’s plagued by stutter and lag, and the battery drains at double speed.

Samsung Galaxy S5

Powerful and speedy with a great display, the Galaxy S5 was favorably reviewed, but the design was a serious misstep for Samsung. While Apple and HTC blended glass and metal in stunning designs, Samsung wrapped a metal-effect band around a plastic back with a sticking plaster finish. For a flagship phone, it felt cheap and looked ugly.

BlackBerry Passport

The BlackBerry Passport must be the shortest, widest phone ever made. It was so squat that it could hardly be managed one-handed. The 4.5-inch touchscreen was square, which didn’t work well with most apps or videos. It was also laggy and expensive, but at least that fat body provided room for a big battery.

Yotaphone 2

Jessica Lee Star/Digital Trends

This device struck on a smart solution to the battery draining dual display conundrum — make one of the screens epaper, like a Kindle. The always-on epaper allows you to see the time, incoming calls and messages, or even calendar appointments without firing up the main AMOLED which drains the battery. It was too expensive and packed unimpressive specs, so it failed to catch on, but we still think it’s a smart idea.

Vertu Signature Touch

And you thought your iPhone X was expensive at a paltry $1,000. Little did you know you could drop more than 10 times that to get a hideous leather and titanium phone with distinctly average Android innards and loads of bloatware. The Vertu Signature Touch started at $11,500. Conspicuous consumption at its worst.

Sirin Labs Solarin

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

If you’re suitably sickened by the Vertu, you might want to sit down. The Solarin is a $13,000 Android phone covered in a weird carbon-leather weave, with a special diamond switch that activates shielded privacy mode, supposedly making your communications unhackable. The cost is justified by an ostentatiously expensive body and your own cybersecurity team on 24/7 call because functionally. this was an average Android flagship with a heavily modified interface atop an older version of the OS.

Weird cell phone designs from the pre-smartphone days

With dominant touch displays, modern smartphone design hasn’t gotten all that weird. But older cell phone manufacturers were less restricted, and some of them really went to town.

Nokia 7600

One of the smallest (87 x 78 x 19mm) phones at the time and definitely one of the strangest phones ever released, the teardrop-shaped Nokia 7600 had a bunch of interchangeable covers for the fashion-conscious. With a 128 x 160-pixel color screen, 3G support, a VGA camera, and polyphonic ringtones it was a mixed bag. The big problem was that it proved almost impossible to use.

Nokia N-Gage

The holy grail of a successful gaming phone remains elusive. Nokia’s ill-fated attempt to take on Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance fell woefully short of the mark. The taco shape was odd, there was a lack of good games, and the screen had an aspect ratio of 11:13. It eventually got some decent titles, including Civilization, though it’s very hard to imagine playing it on a device this size.

Nokia 7280

Another fashion phone from Nokia, the 7280 was supposed to resemble lipstick. It had a tiny 208 x 104-pixel screen on the side. The end slid out and it had a touch-sensitive spinner, like you would find on an old iPod, instead of a keyboard. It looked completely different from everything else on the market at the time and it’s still an eye-catching design.

Siemens Xelibri 6

Another fashion experiment, the clamshell Xelibri 6 actually had two mirrors inside for doing your makeup. There was also a weird round keypad and a tiny 101 x 80-pixel display in the middle of the top mirror. This was the oddest in a very odd line of phones.

Samsung Reclaim

This bright green monstrosity was made from 80 percent recycled materials, according to Samsung. It was an attempt at an eco-friendly phone, an idea that has failed to catch on. The manual was even printed on recycled paper with soy-based ink. It was a slider phone with a full QWERTY keyboard under the tiny, wee screen.

Toshiba G450

Perhaps the weirdest thing about this lozenge-shaped phone with a circular display at the top and a keypad awkwardly spread across a further two circles below is the fact that it came out in 2011, which makes the iPhone 4S, Galaxy Nexus, and Droid Razr contemporaries. As well as a phone, it was an MP3 player and a USB storage device, though there was no space for a camera.

That is it for our roundup of the craziest phone designs, but if you have suggestions for more, let us know about them in the comments.

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What is Sweatcoin and how does it work?

Whether you’re seeking motivation to be more active or you’re already a fitness buff who wouldn’t mind a few extra perks for working out, Sweatcoin is a great way to earn rewards for moving your body. That said, there’s always a lot of confusion about anything dealing with digital currency (aka cryptocurrency) — let alone the actual app and its functions.

Bogged down with arcane terms like cryptocurrency and blockchain, it can seem more complicated than it is. However, get past the perplexing vocabulary and Sweatcoin is actually fairly straightforward. To help sift through the jargon, we’ve put together this simple explainer.

What is Sweatcoin exactly? 

As mentioned above, Sweatcoin is digital currency you earn by being active. To accumulate it, you first need to download the Sweatcoin app and keep it running on your phone at all times. Any time you walk or run outside, it tracks your steps and pays you in sweatcoins (SWC). For every 1,000 steps you take, you earn just under 1 SWC.

After accumulating enough SWC, you’re then able to redeem them for items like sports watches, Amazon credits, music downloads, e-Books, airline miles, or gift certificates to various retailers. Offers constantly changed and are largely based on whatever deals Sweatcoin has made with various retailers. These transactions are all viewable via the Sweatcoin app — available for free on both iOS and Android, although you can use your sweatcoins to upgrade to different subscription levels.

Far from a perfect system

There are a few limitations to the app, however. First, to amass SWC, you have to be running or walking — the activity tracking is based solely on steps, so riding your bike or swimming is not going to earn any coins. You also have to be outside to accrue SWC which means running on a treadmill or doing stairs at the gym won’t count either — although some reports say it records steps around the house. The reason for this restriction is to avoid ways to hack the system indoors. The company says it’s currently developing an algorithm to address this issue. 

The activity tracking is based solely on steps, so riding your bike or swimming is not going to earn any coins.

Another limitation is that it always needs to be tied to your phone, so if you take a walk and forget your device — or if you’re someone who prefers to jog without lugging along phone — you’re out of luck. Currently, there isn’t a way to sync the app with any smartwatches or fitness trackers, and the company has yet to announce any sort of plan for this type of compatibility. 

Additionally, the app must always be running on your phone. If you swipe up or force quit, it stops tracking your steps. Thankfully,  it has a battery saver mode which it defaults to when you first download the app, though you do still lose a few steps in the exchange. Among user reviews, there are mixed opinions as to how much battery life it actually uses up. Some say they hardly notice a difference while others have claimed it to be a giant battery drain.

Perhaps its biggest limiting factor is that its basic membership limits users to amassing just five coins per day. It does allow for upgrades to the base membership but that does require a payment — in sweatcoins. For example, five SWC per month pushes you to the level of Shaker where you’re allowed to earn 10 sweatcoins per day. The next membership level is Quaker which costs 20 SWC per month and permits 15 SWC a day. Finally, the Breaker membership costs 30SWC per month and allows for up to 20 SWC per day.

Sweatcoin also recently announced a Trouble Maker membership it plans on releasing soon, although there aren’t any details available as to what it will cost per month or how many SWCs are allowed to accrue each day.

No cash trades… for now

One question a lot of new users ask about Sweatcoin is whether you can trade the currency for cash or PayPal credit — like you can with Bitcoin. At the moment, this isn’t possible, though there have been rumors since the app launched in 2015 that it’s the company’s ultimate end goal.

Despite any formal announcements on the matter, co-founder Oleg Fomenko told TechCrunch in January that its long-term vision includes plans to develop an “open-source blockchain DLT technology that will allow Sweatcoin to be traded like any other major crypto- or fiat currency.” For now, however, the currency essentially operates like a rewards program similar to those you find with airlines, credit cards, and various mobile apps.

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More than 1,000 experiences are available for the Oculus Go VR headset

Now that the Oculus Go mobile virtual reality headset is available to purchase, you definitely won’t find a shortage of content typically associated with a new platform. That is because the device is compatible with apps already available for Samsung’s smartphone-powered Gear VR, thus there are more than 1,000 titles available at launch to install and enjoy. 

Read our Oculus Go hands-on review

“The most talented VR developers in the world have been busy since OC4, creating updates for their previously launched titles as well as a bunch of brand-new content,” the company said on Tuesday, May 1. “Thanks to their hard work, there’s nearly 100 new and updated titles to try right now and more to follow in the coming months.” 

To get you started with the Oculus Go, the company provides an “essentials” bundle for $24 consisting of seven experiences: Jurassic World: Blue, Coaster Combat, Netflix, Face Your Fears, Drop Dead, Dead Secret Circle, and Bait! You’ll find other bundles too listed under the Oculus Collections banner costing up to $36, focusing on specific genres such as sports, simulators, arcade, adventure, puzzles, and so on. 

For customers who just want to consume their favorite movies and TV shows, the Home Theater bundle gets you started for free. It consists of Hulu, Netflix, and Showtime (subscriptions required) along with Bigscreen Beta, a virtual movie theater where you can hang out with friends to watch movies and play PC games. The Within app provides premium VR content while Amaze combines 3D with virtual reality. 

Oculus Go

If the wireless, $200 Oculus Go can’t sell VR, nothing can

$199.00 from Amazon

$199.00 from Best Buy

Each day Oculus will provide a Daily Deal. For instance, the deal as of this article was Coaster Combat, reduced to $3 from its original $5 price. In this social-powered game, players ride a roller coaster and hit treasure targets with an assortment of weapons. It’s also part of the Thrills & Chills bundle and the Roller Coaster Fun bundle in addition to the Essentials pack. 

If you missed the news, Oculus Go is a stand-alone virtual reality headset that does not require a smartphone or a tethered PC. Simply slap in onto your face and jump right into mobile-level virtual reality experiences. The headset includes built-in speakers supporting spatial audio and a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones. A single motion controller with a touch surface, trigger button, and Home and Back buttons for navigation is bundled with the Oculus Go. 

Theoretically, the Oculus Go would be a better option than Gear VR. That is because the Oculus Go doesn’t deal with phone-based processes that typically bog down a smartphone’s CPU as it struggles to render your experience. The platform is specifically designed and optimized for virtual reality, providing the best experience in a mobile-class device. 

In the overall Oculus scheme, the Oculus Go resides at the bottom of Facebook’s VR totem pole. It’s an affordable low-end headset with standard head tracking that competes in the mobile VR space. The company’s upcoming mid-range platform dubbed “Santa Cruz” will rely on six-degree inside-out tracking for total, tether-free movement. The current PC-dependent Oculus Rift serves as the high-end premium device. 

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Consumers don’t have to use genuine parts to maintain a warranty, FTC says

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) called out six technology companies for their deceptive warranty practices, giving each firm 30 days to correct its practices to be in compliance with U.S. laws. We previously reported that the FTC sent letters to six companies warning them that the use of the “warranty void if removed” stickers are illegal, and thanks to recently uncovered letters from Motherboard‘s Freedom of Information Act request, we now know the names of the companies. In addition to the use of deceptive stickers, Asus, HTC, Hyundai, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony were also warned that the warranty language on their websites is in violation of U.S. laws.

“This letter places you on notice that violations of the Warranty and FTC Acts may result in legal action,” the letters, dated April 9 and authored by FTC associate director of marketing practices Lois Greisman, read, citing the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act as justification.

Restrictions placed on a product requiring it to be used with official accessories — including games, software, and hardware peripherals like power supplies — for the warranty to be honored are illegal. A company cannot, for example, void your warranty if you use a third-party or unlicensed power supply.

In its letter to Microsoft, for example, the FTC called out Microsoft’s warranty language, which states that the company “is not responsible” and that the warranty “does not apply if your Xbox One or accessory is repaired by anyone other than Microsoft.” This, according to the FTC, violates U.S. laws. In Hyundai’s case, the FTC took note of the auto manufacturer’s service clause on its website, which states that “the use of Hyundai Genuine Parts is required to keep your Hyundai manufacturer’s warranties and any extended warranties intact.”

“In addition, claims by a warrantor that create a false impression that a warranty would be void due to the use of unauthorized parts or service may, apart from the Warranty Act, constitute a deceptive practice under Section 5 of the FTC Act,” Greisman wrote.

After reviewing the warranty language on the manufacturers’ websites, the FTC gave these companies 30 days to be in compliance

The FTC’s latest move is consistent with its previous actions, like clarifying the law to state that jailbreaking or rooting phones, tablets, and smart TVs is not only legal, it does not void the entire warranty. These modifications, the agency noted, are protected so as long as they are not the cause of a specific damage that the consumer wants to get repaired under an existing warranty.

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All the new features coming to the Facebook app and Messenger

Facebook

At its F8 developer conference this week, Facebook introduced a variety of new features and updates users will soon see over the next few months. From a new dating app to privacy controls, the social media platform is bringing people more ways to interact with others and add to their profiles.

Here are all the new features to expect on the Facebook and Messenger apps in the near future.

New features on Facebook:

Clear History

In an effort to help protect user privacy, Facebook introduced a new feature called Clear History. While it’s going to take a few months to build, the feature will allow users to view and delete the information from apps and websites that’s collected for Facebook’s ads and analytics tools. That way, app developers won’t be able to link information they collect directly back to your profile.

The feature is similar to the way you can clear cookies and browser history, so it might affect your overall Facebook experience. The company did warn users that by using the feature (which you can toggle on and off), they might be required to sign back in each time they want to log into their account. Facebook will also have to relearn their preferences.

Crisis Response Hub

Facebook introduced its Crisis Response Hub in 2017 to help people stay safe and informed when a crisis arises. A new feature rolling out later this year, it will allow people affected by the crisis to share real-time updates of their experience, including photos or videos of damage, road closure inforrmation, and more.

Dating app

In an effort to jump into the dating game, Facebook is building a feature for dating and relationships within the app. Similar to Tinder and Bumble, you’ll be able to create a dating profile that’s separate from your Facebook profile. Your potential matches will then be recommended based on things you have in common, dating preferences, and mutual friends.

Since the dating service functionality won’t go into testing until later this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t share too many details. He did mention that users will also have the ability to discover others with similar interests through their Groups and Events. But what you do within the dating feature won’t be shared with friends, meaning you’ll have some privacy while using the feature.

Sharing 3D photos

Following the introduction of 3D posts that allows users to share 3D content on Facebook, users will be able to share 3D photos as well starting this summer. While the company didn’t release too many details about the new feature, it did mention that users will be able to post the 3D photos to their news feeds.

Groups tab

To help make it easier to access Groups you’re a part of on Facebook, the app will now have its own dedicated tab. Placed at the bottom of the app next to already existing tabs like Notifications and News Feed, the Groups tab will allow you to find more groups to connect with.

Watch Party

Facebook’s Watch Party lets users view videos together with their friends. If you’re part of a group on Facebook, you’ll also have a Live Commentating option through Watch Party — allowing moderators to narrate what’s being watched by the entire group.

Downvotes and upvotes

While Facebook is known for starting the “Like” trend that is now used across a multitude of social media platforms, it has yet to release the opposite. The company announced it will be adding an upvote/downvote feature, but it will only be available for some comments. Users will only be able to use it on certain posts to help promote helpful or insightful comments, which is likelyy Facebook’s way of keeping people from abusing the feature.

Sharing to your Facebook Stories

Following the introduction of Snapchat Stories, Facebook introduced its own Stories feature that allowed users to upload a collection photos and videos using the in-app camera. At the developer conference, the company announced that you’ll now be able to add more to your stories by sharing content from other platforms.

By tapping the share button through an app, you’ll be able to share the content directly into the camera and then edit it however you’d like. The feature will be available to use on Instagram Stories as well, and you aren’t required to link either of your accounts to other apps in order to use the feature.

New features on Messenger:

M Translations

Within Marketplace on Messenger, users will soon be able to use a new feature called M Translations, which will translate conversations in real time. The feature will be rolled out throughout the year to users in the United States, and will only translate English and Spanish conversations at launch.

More Messenger customization options

While Facebook didn’t release information on when we can expect to see the update, it did announce a redesign is coming to Messenger that will help the app look less cluttered. Users will also be able to customize their interactions with the ability to change the color of the message bubbles, and will also have the option to switch to night mode.

AR on Facebook Messenger

Launching in closed beta, brands will now be able to integrate augmented reality camera effects for its customers to experience in Messenger. You’ll be able to virtually customize or try on merchandise whether that’s makeup from Sephora or sneakers made by Nike. It will also give users the opportunity to learn more about the products than they would by simply viewing them online.

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T-Mobile Q1 earnings show $10.46 billion in revenue and record low turnover

The carrier also added 1.4 million new subscribers.

On Monday, May 1, T-Mobile announced its financial report for Q1 of 2018. Although earnings are down by 2.5% compared to this time last year, T-Mobile is showing strong numbers every else across the board.

Looking first at revenues, T-Mobile reported $10.46 billion to exceed analysts’ expectations of $10.35 billion. Earnings were reported at $0.78/share and the carrier added 1.4 million customers (1 million of which were “branded postpaid”) to surpass the expected 1.27 million number.

That $10.46 billion in revenue results in an 8.8% year-over-year growth for T-Mobile, and this Q1 2018 report marks the 20th consecutive quarter of which more than 1 million customers were added to the network.

Looking a bit deeper at T-Mobile’s subscriber base, customer turnover is down to just 1.07% compared to last year’s 1.18%. The carrier also hopes to increase its new customer base for the year from 2 – 3 million to 2.6 – 3.3 million.

T-Mobile announced on April 29 that it was finally merging with Sprint for $26.5 billion after years of speculation. The two carriers will work together to build up the United States’ 5G infrastructure, and while the move is being marketed as a win for consumers, the general response is still all over the place.

The T-Mobile / Sprint merger could be great for consumers, but it probably won’t be

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Oculus Go: Everything you need to know!

Oculus Go is here!

At Oculus Connect 4, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Oculus is working a new headset that sits in a “sweet spot” somewhere between Gear VR and Rift.

Officially called Oculus Go, this headset requires no phone and no cables running to the PC. It will be able to play movies, run games, and help you meet up with friends in VR. We’ve got the details for you here!

May 1, 2018 Update: Ordering goes live on Amazon and news from F8 Conference!

Last night the Oculus Go pre-order page on Amazon was created. There were no confirmed cases of people actually being able to pre-order the headset overnight. Furthermore, the release date mentioned on the page was originally a staggering “December of 2018.” Don’t get discouraged, however. Whenever a new page is created on Amazon but hasn’t gone live yet the date will always read “December of 2018.” This is something I can understand gets confusing quickly.

Onto the real deal, what happened during the Key Note of F8? First, devs were greeted at the door this morning with a sign stating there would be updates for Oculus Go during the conference. Then, finally. The most anticipated news of the VR community has been released. Oculus Go will be shipping today. Getting an official date instead of “sometime before summer of 2018”. Get ready, VR nerds, it’s time to take VR to a mobile headset. Tell us in the comment section below what you plan on doing as soon as you get your headset! Keep an eye out on Amazon for the buying option to go live!

After checking out the available ways of buying the headset it turns out there are two different memory options! You can get the 32GB headset for $199 and the 64GB headset for $249.

See on Amazon

Click here to read more on which headset you should buy, 32GB or 64GB?

“The graphics were crisp across my view
without any distortion at the corners
with the games I played.”

Lori Gil, who is newer to the VR community, go to try out the Oculus Go during GDC 2018. Check out what she has to say about it here.

“Oculus Go, in my opinion, is positioned to be the first true consumer-focused VR system to bring new people into the fold. No, it’s not a top-quality device with all the bells and whistles, but it is completely self-contained so the initial investment is minimal. For $200, you can get started with VR. You don’t need a special phone, you don’t even need a phone at all! You don’t need a special computer or graphics card or game console. It’s the perfect starter VR device. Once new users get into VR through Oculus Go, they can then decide whether to move on to something more powerful if they’re ready to go all-in, or stick with the entry-level device if they discover they’re not heavy VR players. I can’t wait to get one.”

So, there you have it. Whether you’re new to VR or an avid user I can’t see anyone being disappointed with this device. Even when it comes to comfort Lori mentions “- just a little top-heavy (by comparison with the Rift, the Go has a bit of extra weight). I could feel some pressure on my cheeks, but the headset was definitely designed to counter the extra battery weight.”

The Oculus company truly put a lot of thought and planning into making a VR device that can be enjoyed by all. So, even if you’re a new VR player, this is still the device for you.

Click the link below to your own Oculus Go headset!

See on Amazon

What is Oculus Go?

Oculus Go is the third headset from Oculus, and it’s meant to sit between Gear VR and Oculus Rift. A cordless headset, you’ll no longer have to strap in with your PC or have enough juice on your phone in order to play in VR.

It is built to be lightweight, has a new mesh foam interface, and it supposedly has the best visual clarity so far seen in VR, thanks to new lenses and a WQHD LCD fast-switch display with a higher fill-factor than OLED. We learned at CES 2018 that Oculus Go is going to be made by Xiaomi, and it will be run by a Snapdragon 821 processor making it more than capable of playing the awesome games that are going to be available.

Oculus says this headset lives somewhere in between the Gear VR and Oculus Rift, but it leans much closer to the Gear VR than you might expect. This is a standalone headset, meaning the computer is inside the headset with the display, but it’s still an Android-powered headset. The good news is this means it will run many of the apps currently available for the Gear VR. That means the headset will not let you walk around and do much. Functionally, this will be very similar to the Gear VR.

Read more: Lenovo Mirage vs Oculus Go

Whats the difference between Oculus Go and Gear VR?

To begin with, Oculus Go is a stand-alone headset. This means no need to be wired into your computer like Oculus Rift, or the need for a top of the line phone like with Gear VR. It’s a middle of the road option that is priced affordably in an effort to draw in new users to help Oculus reach their goal of one billion VR users.

Instead of including headphones with the headset, a spatial audio experience is built right into the headset. That is spatial speakers that are built on the rails of the headset to let you hear what’s going on clearly without headphones. Of course, if you’d rather go with classic headphones, you can plug a set of your own into a 3.5mm jack. Oculus Go will have a controller similar to that of Gear VR, meaning devs can create apps that work on both platforms.

Indeed, a lot of the Gear VR’s best apps will be available for the Oculus Go from day one. The controller employs three degrees of freedom (DoF), which is the same as the Gear VR controller. It’s interesting to note that the Go headset will also use three DoF. To put that into perspective, the Oculus Rift uses six DoF.

Oculus Go will also have access to its own catalog of games and apps to dive into on launch day. While ports of Gear VR games are sure to show up, you’ll be getting access to new content with Oculus Go. From the photos we’ve seen of Oculus Go, there is also a fairly pared down look compared to Gear VR. No touchpad on the side of the headset, and only two buttons on the top; volume controls, and a power button.

Games and Experiences

Since we have been notified that Gear VR apps and games will be compatible with Oculus Go we know we’ll have plenty to keep us occupied! Not every Gear VR game will be available to the Oculus Go, but there are still 1,000+ titles available that I don’t see you getting bored in the next foreseeable future.

When is it launching?

Today during the F8 conference they finally announced the Oculus Oculus Go will be shipping May 1, 2018 (today!). Click the link below to get yours!

See at Amazon

How much will it cost?

You’ll be able to pick up this standalone headset for a tidy sum of $199. Considering Gear VR alone costs $129.99 and requires a top of the line smartphone, this is pretty exciting news!

Are you excited?

For now, we don’t have a ton of information about everything that Oculus Go will be able to offer, but that should be changing soon. However, the details we do have are definitely worth getting excited about, especially since this is a stand-alone headset, with an affordable price tag. Are you excited about Oculus Go, or are you sticking with another Oculus headset? Let us know about it in the comments below!

Updated May 1, 2018: Oculus Go is now available to purchase!

How to downgrade your Android phone to a previous version

Whether you need to downgrade your Android version or just think you need to, there are some things you need to know.

Most of us here are update junkies. When a new version of Android (or anything, for that matter) is announced, we start talking about when we’ll get a chance to try it and take a look at the changes the changes. We look at all the leaks or legit news about an update, and we’re ready to install it as soon as we can. It’s half the fun of owning an Android.

But not everyone feels this way.

There are a few cases where upgrading to a new version isn’t something you ever want to do. Enterprise software is notorious for being slow to adapt and new versions of any software may not be supported. Or you might have some equipment like a handheld scanner that won’t work if you take an update. Things like this aren’t an issue for most people, though.

More often than not, when someone wants to go back to an older version of Android it’s because they aren’t happy with the updated version. We all can deal with some bugs better than others, and if an update brings one of the bugs you can’t deal with you might look for the option of going back. That’s not as simple as it sounds in most cases.

Make sure you want to downgrade your Android

Moving backward and installing an old version of Android is not without its own set of headaches. There’s the security aspect of it all for starters. If your phone is tracked to be on version 3 of the software, issues with version 2 aren’t likely to be addressed by the company who made it. Next you’ll have to figure out how to downgrade, which we’ll talk more about later. After that, you may find that some of the things you really like just won’t work with an older version.

Google introduces new APIs for developers with every iteration of Android, and companies like Samsung or Huawei add their own on top when they customize it. Many times, these changes are not backward-compatible. Some of the new things you won’t get to use may be minor and seemingly unimportant, but there’s always a chance that something you really need or love isn’t going to work with an older version. There’s no real way to fix this unless you want to do something like install custom third-party software.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here, because for most of us, there’s just not going to be a way to roll back to a previous version.

The easy stuff first

If you have a Pixel or Nexus phone, or a phone from another company who is willing to let you unlock your phone’s bootloader and will provide you with a catalog of all the various versions of Android that apply to it, rolling back is fairly easy. And this isn’t unheard of, either. We’ve seen HTC and Motorola both offer a way to unlock bootloaders and have archives of older versions for certain phones that were sold unlocked.

If you have a phone that makes it possible, doing it is simple.

• Back up everything you can to the cloud
• Download the version of software you want to install and any utilities you need to install it
• Read, understand what you’ve read, then do it

There is a lot of stuff you’re not going to be able to back up without having root access. Know that things like game progress, message histories as well as photos and videos inside your messenger app, and any other third-party data that’s not cloud synced may be gone forever, because a downgrade of the OS always requires a full device wipe. Check into the various backup and restore apps and be sure to have Google Photos setup to back up your pics and videos before you start clicking anything.

You’ll also want to be sure you understand the process and have all the tools you need up and running. Flashing the operating system to a phone isn’t one of those things you can stop at the halfway mark

More: How to manually flash your Pixel or Nexus phone

The hard stuff

The thing is, most folks us aren’t using a unlockable device with factory images all packed up and ready to flash. Companies usually don’t like to share an installable version of their OS for some reason, and tracking down something you can flash yourself may prove very difficult. Your best bet is to visit online forums where others with the same model may be looking for the same thing.

Finding an older version can be difficult, and most times that’s the easiest part of it all.

Then again, finding it might be the easy part because there are other hurdles to overcome. Normally, an OS update also updates the device’s bootloader. That means to go back, you’ll need to be able to flash a prior version of the phone’s bootloader first. The bootloader is one of those pieces of software that usually can’t be rolled back through normal means so you’ll need to resort to some really tricky hacks if it can even be done. Flashing a bootloader incorrectly is one of the few sure-fire ways to brick an Android phone.

Sometimes the hacks used to flash software to your model of Android are simple and not that hard to do correctly. But that’s not always the case and you’ll usually see a handful of people explaining how they ruined their phone when things took a turn for the worse.

I’m not trying to talk you out of it, but you need to know that the five minutes it takes to flash your phone back to an older version could have hours and hours of reading as a prerequisite.

Custom ROMs

If you’re serious about going back, and don’t mind losing your warranty, a custom ROM is usually a better choice than actually downgrading.

Custom ROMs are third-party versions of Android that have been built and modified by users like you. It’s not unheard of for the phone manufacturer to give an assist (Sony provides resources for this) but most of the time a custom ROM comes from a person or group of people who just love to write code and tinker with phones.

A custom ROM may mean that you’ll have the best of both worlds: a version of Android that includes any critical updates and new features but can still support a feature that was removed in the official version from the company who made the phone. You’ll also have to void any warranty you may have and installing a custom ROM can be as difficult as installing an older version of official software, though. If you have a popular model, you’ll probably find a custom ROM for it at places like XDA Developers, a website dedicated to the good kind of phone hacking.

It’s not something we want to hear; we’re not allowed to install (or try to install) any software we like on the expensive phone we paid for. It’s almost like we don’t really own it. But it’s a reality in most cases and not something likely to change any time soon.

Update April 2018: This post has been updated with any new information about downgrading your phone.