Xiaomi shares hands-on Mi Mix 3 photo, confirms 5G capabilities

Where’d the bezels go?

Less than a week ago, Xiaomi shared an official render for its upcoming Mi Mix 3 smartphone — confirming a nearly bezel-less design and a mechanical slider that houses the phone’s camera sensors.

Now, Xiaomi’s Director of Product Management, Donovan Sung, has confirmed another feature for the phone — 5G.

Sharing one more photo. Does anyone see anything interesting? 😎#Xiaomi pic.twitter.com/LjZGibMsuR

— Donovan Sung (@donovansung) September 3, 2018

Sung shared the above Tweet on September 3, and as you can see in the upper right-hand corner of the Mi Mix 3’s screen, there’s a very prominent 5G icon.

Along with the 5G confirmation, this photo also gives us another look at the Mi Mix 3’s design, this time with its slider portion closed.

Are you getting excited for the Mi Mix 3?

Xiaomi render suggests the Mi Mix 3 will also feature a mechanical slider

Marvel’s Spider-Man review: Amazing, Spectacular, and a little clumsy

In which Insomniac Games teaches a master class in what it means to make something for every kind of Spidey fan.

While the Spider-Man archive in my brain runs back as far as I can remember, my first Spider-Man videogame was Spider-Man 2. For most people, this game was a deeply positive experience. For me, it was a waking nightmare from which there was no return. I was working in the games department of a Best Buy, where we’d received a full copy of the game to put in our demo station. This lead people to come in as soon as the store opened each day and wait for a turn to play. We had that game in the demo station for almost six months, during which I heard the sounds of web slinging approximately 700 billion times. To say I was not a fan of Spider-Man games at this point would be underselling it considerably.

30 seconds into the first gameplay teaser for Insomniac’s vision of a whole new Spider-Man game, and all of that negativity washed away entirely. I was excited and, like countless others, started following every step of the development process. The PlayStation 4 community has been following this game so closely that there was an argument about whether game performance had forced developers to adjust the size of puddles in the game because one was not where it looked like it should be from a pair of gameplay videos. It is not understating anything to say this title has earned itself a rabid fan base before it even launched and, after spending 16 hours in this game, I can safely say a lot of that hype has been well earned.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Price: $60

Bottom line: On top of being absolutely stuffed with fun things from every corner of the Spider-verse, this game is fun as hell to play from beginning to end. It absolutely deserves a place on your shelf.

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Pros:

• Breathtakingly beautiful
• Strong story
• Excellent combat system
• Heaps of content

Cons:

• Boss fights are way too scripted
• Non-combatant AI is sloppy

About this review

I’ve been playing a copy of Marvel’s Spider Man, provided by Sony, for the last four days. While I have completed the core story, I have only completed 64% of the total game according to the save menu. My total gameplay time for this review is 16.4 hours.

NYC has never looked so pretty

Marvel’s Spider-Man world and story

Welcome to a New York City-sized sandbox. For long-time Spider-Man fans, your first few minutes in this game will feel all too familiar. Sling the web, sail through the city, spot a bad guy, do the friendly neighborhood thing, repeat. This is the experience you paid for, the thing everyone craves when they hear about a Spider-Man game.

But what Insomniac has done here exists on an entirely different level from any other game in this genre. This world doesn’t just kind of look like NYC, it feels like you’re actually there. As someone who regularly travels to a lot of the places in New York where events unfold in this game, it was beyond cool to see things like the Amtrak entrance to Madison Square Garden and appreciate how real it seemed. There’s a mission where you are put inside of Grand Central Terminal and you can actually walk up into the Apple Store on the balcony and crouch among the tables full of phones. And for people who have actually stood next to those tables, surreal doesn’t adequately cover it.

The basics of a Spider-Man game are polished to a point of realism as well. Most Spider-Man fans are used to having that “what did that web he just shot even attach to” conversation while playing these games. It’s even something you hear about the movies at times. Even in a city like New York, there are limitations to where you can attach a web and swing through and those limitations are pretty reasonably respected in this game. When you sail through the city, your web looks like it connected to something. If you’re up high above the buildings, you can’t shoot a web into nothing and continue swinging. You fall below the buildings and then the web starts flying again. This gameplay mechanic is fairly automatic as you play but there are lots of little things you can do to speed yourself up or perform aerial tricks which make the experience a whole lot more dynamic. You can choose to be less engaged when traveling from place to place, but the game rewards you for having fun and really getting into character. And really, that’s a theme for the whole game. You are rewarded for being excited about the game and for not taking every moment super seriously.

For many, this is going to be a fairly new take on Spider-Man and I personally loved every minute of it.

Since this web travel mechanic includes a bit of a free-fall, Insomniac doubled-down and includes a way for you to basically skydive straight down from time to time. This is a handy and visually stunning way to bring yourself down closer to the streets and it also helps close the gap when chasing villains in a car. However, all of this sort of falls apart if you hit the ground accidentally. If this happens, Spider-Man assumes the tried and true three-point superhero landing – even if that drop happened from the top of the Empire State Building.

There is no death or damage from falling when travelling through the city but you do get to scare the pants off the citizens walking the sidewalks. When you hit the ground everyone around you is immediately alarmed and scatters but this AI quickly forgets why it is running away when someone recognizes you so you get this mix of panic and someone shouting about getting your autograph. This weird mixed panic mechanic even happens when you land on the roof of a police building. The officers standing on the roof for seemingly no reason are not only surprised to see you, but frequently say things like “we don’t need your help right now” as they run from you. Clearly, the civilian AI didn’t get the same level of polish as the rest of the city.

As for our hero, well let’s just say he’s not the Spider-Man you’ve seen in the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe films. This isn’t Tony Stark’s ward, as Doctor Strange would call him. This is grown up Peter Parker. He’s graduated from college, has a job, struggles to pay his rent on time and has a great relationship with his aging Aunt May when he remembers to stop by to see her. You aren’t playing through an origin story; this Spider-Man has lived through multiple revisions to his suit and has already defeated many of the big-name villains from the early days of the comics. J. Jonah Jameson has been relieved of his post at the Bugle, and spends his days as a Alex Jones-esque radio loon, which you tune in to as you sail through the city. For many, this is going to be a fairly new take on Spider-Man and I personally loved every minute of it.

Perhaps my favorite part of the world Insomniac has created for this game is in the little details. It couldn’t be more clear this game was made by people who cherish the Spider-Man franchise and had some opinions on the direction it had been taken in previously. The game is positively stuffed with references to the other movies and games and comics, from the suits you can unlock to the trinkets you find lying around the city. There are jokes about web gliders, commentary on past relationships and so many nods to other parts of the Marvel universe.

And the focus is always on Spider-Man, instead of constantly bumping into the other heroes who also live in the city. You can find Doctor Strange’s New York Sanctum or Jessica Jones’ Alias Investigations, but there’s no awkward side-quest where you have to interact with these heroes and help them with something. This is the most complete Spider-Man experience I’ve ever played and every kind of fan is going to deeply appreciate how much work went in to building this shrine to Spidey.

Meanwhile Jameson is over here shouting about Nazis made of bees…

Marvel’s Spider-Man gameplay and missions

Capturing the way Spider-Man fights in video game form is a challenge no previous developer has quite managed. Spider-Man’s combat style is fluid; he fights in the air and on the ground and around obstacles and with every part of his body constantly. Spider-Man dodges first, attacks when opportunity arises and relies on his webs and web-based gadgets to get him out of trouble when the stakes are truly high. Building all of these elements into a single combat system, without making it too difficult for most people to play and still have fun, seemed almost impossible before playing this game. Insomniac, in my opinion, absolutely nailed what it is to fight as Spider-Man.

This combat system is something truly special. You are rewarded for dodging at just the right moment or landing that perfect hit, and you can spend that reward in real time on more devastating and visually stunning takedowns or on quick bursts of health to keep the fight going. You can be surrounded by a dozen enemies and not feel overwhelmed, as long as you keep moving and remember to use your gadgets. Give some of the enemies a reason to pause and free themselves from webs, while you focus on taking down the others. Use the momentum of one enemy to take out another. Never stay on the ground for long, and always remember to dodge first and punch later. It’s challenging but also deeply exciting, and judging from the way my whole family sat and watched as I played this game, it’s almost more entertaining to watch than it is to play.

And as much as you are rewarded for thinking like Spider-Man, you’re punished for trying to take on too many enemies with just brute force. This game has no problem killing you in combat and, in most cases, that death is surprisingly violent. You don’t see blood and guts or anything, but the visuals of Spider-Man’s broken body as a car hits him or as he’s beaten into the dirt quickly refocus you into seeking a different strategy. In missions, death resets you to the last save point but out in the sandbox, you’ll revert to the closest high point on a building or lamp post and whatever random encounter you were in will have disappeared. The bottom line is you really need to be constantly thinking about how you are fighting and moving, which ends up being quite a bit of fun.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is a thrilling celebration of everything fans love about the friendly neighborhood web-slinger.

Unfortunately, all of that fluid combat and careful thought goes out the window as soon as you are in a boss fight. Every boss fight is scripted, almost entirely taking away your user agency in exchange for something that looks nice. And it’s almost always the same format, too: interrupt the bad guy, land a hit, dodge the counter. Everything else is quick-time events and the occasional grouping of non-boss mobs to help you restore your combat bars for health or extra points for more visual takedowns. It honestly felt like the boss fights were designed by a different team, whose focus was more on exposition than gameplay. As incredible as normal combat feels, that’s how lackluster every boss fight is throughout this game.

When you’re not following the story, the sandbox is filled with tons of other things for you to do. You can flex Peter Parker’s mind with research puzzles, stop random crime events throughout the city, follow clues left by Black Cat and a bunch of other clusters of tasks. Each of these events on the map earn you tokens, which you can spend on upgrading your gadgets and purchasing new suits with new abilities. And, mercifully, you aren’t presented with all of these options at the very beginning of the game. Instead, there’s a nice slow trickle so you’re encouraged to spend a fairly even amount of time exploring the city in between plot points throughout the entire game. There are, however, some obvious advantages to fulfilling these side missions as early as possible, especially if your goal is to collect all of the suits.

Each of the Spider-Man suits you can unlock has a specific ability attached to it. Some help with stealth, while others give you combat or healing advantages. None of these abilities are actually locked to the suit after you purchase them, which means you can wear the Iron Spider suit from Avenger’s Infinity War but use the super stealth ability from the Spider-Man Noir suit. This means you can wear your favorite suit throughout the whole game without compromising your abilities, which I appreciated. It also means there’s value in unlocking things as quickly as possible so you can see how those abilities impact your combat style throughout the missions. Without giving too much away, you’re really going to want to play with as many of these abilities as possible.

The combination of story and side missions comes together to really make this game feel full. By the time you reach the endgame, the map is covered in things to do and the difficulty level for everything from combat to puzzles increases at a steady pace. The whole design encourages you to play through all of the game evenly, instead of just plowing through the story in a rush to the end, which should come together to make at least 20 hours of gameplay by the time you’ve reached the final mission in the story.

That ending though

Marvel’s Spider-Man review

Insomniac deserves all of the positivity this game is about to receive. It couldn’t be more clear this was a labor of love crafted by folks who genuinely enjoy every facet of the universe they were invited to be a part of. The story is unique yet familiar, the combat natural while complex, and there’s a constant focus on Spider-Man and his immediate connections I deeply appreciated. Marvel’s Spider-Man is a thrilling celebration of everything fans love about the friendly neighborhood web-slinger and, with three different DLC packs already announced, it’s clear this is going to be a deeply popular game for quite a while.

4.5
out of 5

The best thing you can do for the Spider-Man fan in your life is make sure they have time to really explore this game deeply and with as few spoilers as possible. Also, don’t be too alarmed if you catch them shouting with excitement towards the end of the game. It’s fine, I promise. We all did it.

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Aukey’s $16 PowerHub Mini replaces a single outlet with six charging slots

Power multiple devices at once!

Using coupon code AUKEYSA1 during checkout, you can grab Aukey’s Powerhub Mini for just $15.99, a savings of $4. It has two AC outlets and four USB ports built-in, meaning that your single outlet becomes far more valuable to you. The USB ports have a max output of 2.4A each, totaling 6A. The AiPower Adaptive Charging Technology allows the charger to automatically adapt to give your devices the fastest charge possible.

You can grab this option with six USB and twelve AC outlets for $32.99 when using coupon code AUKEYSA4. This option is far less compact and portable, but great for those with lots of devices that need to be charged!

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Get lifetime access to Rosetta Stone + a $10 Amazon gift card for $179

Broaden your horizons.

Amazon has a one-day offer for Rosetta Stone Lifetime Access. Tons of different languages are down to $179 today. You’ll get lifetime access online and through your phone, plus a free $10 Amazon gift card. The access code is redeemed by email so you could give this as a gift to someone too.

At its least expensive, Rosetta Stone costs $7.49 per month for a 24-month subscription. It goes up incrementally for shorter subscriptions too. This is a killer deal for a lifetime subscription, especially because it has access for up to five family members, and you could take a refresher course to brush up before you go out and use your newfound skills in the wild. You’ll also get all future product updates for whatever language you select.

Rosetta Stone has been the go-to for language learning for years. It uses Dynamic Immersion to help the language stick. You’ll learn through context by seeing, hearing, speaking, reading, and writing.

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Apple Watch Led Wearables Market in Q2 2018 on Strength of LTE Models

Apple again held the top spot in the wearables market during the second quarter of 2018, shipping 4.7 million Apple Watch units and holding a 17 percent share of the overall wearable market. The new data comes from IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, which states that the market as a whole was up 5.5 percent due to “gains in emerging markets.”

Markets such as Asia Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America grew 14 percent year-over-year because “basic wristbands” remain in high demand due to their low prices. On the other hand, more mature markets like North America, Japan, and Western Europe declined 6.3 percent year-over-year.

Still, IDC research analyst Jitesh Ubrani says this decline “is by no means worrisome” because the wearables market is transitioning to become “more sophisticated.” Instead of tracking basic data points like steps, calories, and workout minutes, future wearables “are well on track to become prescriptive and diagnostic tools.” Rumors related to Apple Watch fall in line with this idea, with reports describing future Apple Watch models that could include an EKG heart monitor and track blood glucose levels.

“The decline in mature markets is by no means worrisome as these markets are in the midst of transitioning to more sophisticated wearables,” said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers.

“While the previous generation of wearables was focused on providing descriptive feedback like step counts, the current and upcoming generations are far more capable and are well on track to becoming prescriptive and diagonistic tools. Surrounding these smarter wearables is a constellation of technologies and service providers that includes app developers, telcos, component makers, healthcare insitutuions and more – each poised for growth in the coming years.”

Overall, IDC says that “two key forces” were at work in Q2 2018: “stronger demand for smart wearables” and “slower decline in the basic wearables market.” IDC’s data describes a smart watch as a product like Apple Watch or Fitbit Versa, while a basic wearable is something like the Fitbit Charge or Garmin Vivosport.

With this in mind, the researchers state that Apple saw continued demand for its LTE-enabled Apple Watch Series 3 in the quarter, which came as a “welcome addition to many telco channels worldwide.” In total, Apple saw a 38.4 year-over-year growth in its Apple Watch shipments from 2017 to 2018. It should be noted that Apple itself does not report Apple Watch sales figures, so IDC’s numbers today are just estimates.

Behind Apple’s 17 percent share and 4.7 million Apple Watch shipments was Xiaomi, which owned 15.1 percent of the market and shipped 4.2 million devices in the second quarter, a growth of 19.8 percent from 2017. While Fitbit sat at third place with a 9.5 percent share and 2.7 million units shipped, this was the biggest decline tracked by IDC, dropping 21.7 percent year-over-year.

Rounding out the last two spots were Huawei at a 6.5 percent share and 1.8 million units shipped (growing 118.1 percent from the year-ago quarter) and Garmin at a 5.3 percent share and 1.5 million units shipped (up 4.1 percent). IDC says that Garmin “extended its lead over Samsung,” knocking the company out of the top five spots as Garmin’s shipment volume of smart watches eclipsed its basic wearables volume.

As smart watches continue to grow in popularity, we’re about one week away from the official unveiling of the Apple Watch Series 4, which leaked last week. The wearable will have smaller bezels with more visible screen space, and at least one new watch face that includes more complications than ever before on Apple Watch.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4, watchOS 5Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
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Apple Music Hosting Exclusive Concert in Paris Featuring Artist ‘Christine and the Queens’

As it has in the past for artists like P!nk and Shawn Mendes, Apple Music this month will host a special performance of new music from artist Christine and the Queen’s upcoming album “Chris” (via iGeneration) At the same time, those in attendance will see the exclusive debut of a new Apple Music film that goes behind-the-scenes of the making of “Chris.”

Fière et excitée de pouvoir vous présenter Chris en concert avec @AppleMusic !
Join me in Paris for an exclusive performance and a special screening of @applemusic presents : Chris. 
Pour assister au concert / Apply for free tickets here: https://t.co/VaPObTRMqK pic.twitter.com/xxXkRDrhqT

— Christ̵i̵n̵e̵ ̵a̵n̵d̵ ̵t̵h̵e̵ ̵q̵u̵e̵e̵n̵s̵ (@QueensChristine) September 4, 2018

The concert takes place on Thursday, September 13 at 7:00 p.m. local time at the Salle Pleyel concert hall in Paris, France. Following the exclusive show, the film “Apple Music Presents: Chris” will launch on the streaming service on Friday, September 14. The full new album by Christine and the Queens will then launch one week later on September 21.

Join Christine and the Queens and Apple Music for a special performance of new music from the forthcoming album Chris, and an exclusive screening of the Apple Music film of the same name – which is a look into the titular character that inspired it all.

Chris is an intimate peek into the intrepid French singer-songwriter-producer’s creative process while she writes and records her forthcoming album, a daring exploration of self and sexuality, identity and perception.

Apple Music has been increasing the number of both special performances and exclusive documentaries on its platform lately, releasing short films about Kesha’s “Rainbow” and Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” over the last couple of weeks. In May, Apple’s streaming service hosted a one-night-only Shawn Mendes concert in Los Angeles, which was recorded and uploaded to Apple Music in its entirety.

Similar to that concert, Christine and the Queen’s performance appears to be free for attendees, and those interested (over the age of 16) can navigate to this page to fill out a form and apply for tickets. According to Apple, those who win will receive a ticket for themselves and one guest.

Tag: Apple Music
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Japan preps first test for its awesome ‘space elevator’

Next time you step inside an elevator, imagine it has a button marked “space.”

It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but researchers in Japan are prepping an experiment for this month to test part of a design for an elevator between Earth and space.

Based at Shizuoka University, 80 miles west of Tokyo, the research team envisions a so-called “space elevator” as a low-cost alternative to rockets for getting astronauts and cargo to orbiting space stations way above Earth.

The experiment is the first of its kind, Japan’s Mainichi newspaper reported.

We first heard about Japan’s plan for a space elevator six years ago when construction firm Obayashi Corporation outlined an electric-powered design capable of transporting up to 30 people at a time into space.

While the two projects are separate, Obayashi has agreed to act as technical adviser for the Shizuoka team, sharing expertise gained from its own research conducted over the last few years.

This month’s experiment will involve a tiny version of the setup in which the team aims to move a motor-driven “elevator car” — essentially a small container — along a 10-meter-long cable connected between two microsatellites. Both satellites will be released from the International Space Station, with satellite-based cameras monitoring the experiment as it takes place.

If the engineers can succeed in moving the container along the cable, the achievement would take the team closer to realizing its dream of building an elevator between Earth and space.

A nine-day ride

Obayashi’s design, which is similar in many ways to the one proposed by the university team, envisions a high-strength cable stretching 22,370 miles (36,000 km) from Earth to a terminal station with laboratories and a living area. At 125 mph (200 kmh), the elevator would travel at more than twice the speed of today’s fastest elevator in China’s Shanghai Tower. And if getting too close to people in a regular elevator leaves you feeling queasy, then take note — the space elevator’s “top floor” will take nine days to reach.

The Mainichi points out that the project could cost as much as 10 trillion yen ($90 billion), but with the elevator’s operating costs estimated at around one-hundredth of that of the space shuttle, the financial benefits could be huge over time.

Obayashi already has plenty of experience in working on bold construction projects, though there’s little argument that a cosmic elevator would be its boldest to date.

But let’s not get carried away with ourselves here. Building an elevator to space is a monumental undertaking and a range of obstacles will need to be overcome for it to become a reality. These include developing a high-strength cable using carbon nanotechnology, and one that can protect against cosmic rays and incoming space debris. There’s also the question of how to fund it.

Still, we like the idea of stepping into an elevator and pressing the button marked “space,” so we hope Obayashi succeeds in meeting its (somewhat ambitious) 2050 deadline for the project.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Get your Sagan on with 60 awe-inspiring photos of the final frontier
• Women may be immune to brain damage from cosmic rays, study finds
• NASA (again) delays launch of the world’s most powerful telescope
• NASA wants help coming up with ways to get rid of astronauts’ space trash
• Virgin Galactic wants to launch space tourism flights from an Italian spaceport

This autonomous drone ambulance concept won its creator a $20,000 prize

Vincenzo Navanteri

Quadcopters are proving to be an exciting technology in a lot of fields, none more so than emergency services where they can be sent into disaster areas to assess damage, send medical equipment, drop supplies, and help plan airlifts.

The remotely controlled flying machines have been used to lower flotation devices to struggling swimmers, while operators recently used a video stream from a drone’s on-board camera to help lead people to safety during a volcanic eruption in Hawaii.

Inspired by the positive work being performed by drones in emergency situations, Vincenzo Navanteri recently came up with a design for a quadcopter large enough to carry a person to safety.

Judges at the recent World Air Sports’ International Drones Conference were so impressed with Navanteri’s concept design that they awarded him the Prince Alvaro de Orleans-Borbon Grant, worth $20,000.

Accepting the award in Lausanne, Switzerland, the 34-year-old Italian said he’ll use the cash to help him and his team develop the autonomous air ambulance, which, in simple terms, looks like an enormous quadcopter with a stretcher on top.

The design includes an on-board camera and back-up batteries, as well as an oxygen supply unit and health-monitoring technology. Navanteri envisions a machine that can operate in all weathers and in a variety of testing situations, including earthquakes, floods, and even nuclear contamination zones.

The team’s aim is to build a self-flying machine capable of carrying a person — or emergency supplies — weighing up to 265 pounds (120 kg) at speeds of up to 68 mph (110 kmh).

Its unique technology could also see it flying non-stop for up to 95 miles (150 km). The quadcopter’s range, which is the standout feature for Navanteri, would be achieved thanks to its two gas-driven micro-turbines that generate the electricity to power the battery-driven propellers. The creator said he believes the patented technology is “revolutionary” and will help “move drones forward, away from simple 20-minute battery-life.”

Presenting the award, FAI president Frits Brink described Navanteri’s design as “innovative,” adding, “The potential for drones to do good is great, and ideas like this single-person drone ambulance show the potential. The technology underpinning this idea is real — a drone ambulance used in search and rescue is not simply a good idea, it is a realistic one too.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• A single police drone has seriously impacted crime in a Mexican city
• 7 amazing anti-drone technologies designed to swat UAVs out of the sky
• The best drones under $500
• Ohio wants to use camera drones to monitor highway traffic
• Watch as a ‘lifeguard drone’ rescues a swimmer struggling at sea

Asteroid mining is almost reality. What to know about the gold rush in space

Mining resources from asteroids may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but — at least if you believe some very smart people — it’s well on its way to becoming science fact.

What will be mined? Why would anyone want to do this? And who are the main players in this (literal) space? Read on for a beginner’s guide to all things asteroid mining.

I’m still not convinced. This is seriously a real thing?

Well, with that attitude it won’t be! To answer your question: no, it’s not happening yet — but don’t count it out, either. With resources on Earth set to become increasingly scarce, it makes sense that we look further afield.

Artist’s illustration of Deep Space Industries’ Harvestor-class spacecraft for asteroid mining. Deep Space Industries

Depending on their type, asteroids can contain everything from water (useful for long-term space exploration missions) to nickel and cobalt or even valuable metals like gold or platinum. These are often in much higher concentrations than we would find on Earth.

Around 9,000 known asteroids are currently traveling in orbit close to the Earth, and some 1,000 new ones are discovered each year. According to estimates, a one-kilometer diameter asteroid may contain up to 7,500 tons of platinum, with a value of upwards of $150 billion. That’s a reason to get excited in itself.

So is this going to be the next gold rush?

With that kind of money to be made, it certainly could be. While the upfront investment costs means this won’t be quite the free-for-all of the famous 19th century gold rush, there are plenty of big names — ranging from Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos — who are very, very interested.

Think of it as panning for gold, except with the pans replaced by multimillion dollar space launches.

Isn’t that cost a limiting factor?

It very well could be. Simply put: the pricey part of this isn’t the R&D that goes into working out how to do asteroid mining. Nor is it the launches that take place to actually the achieve the goal. Instead, the really expensive bit is getting the materials back to Earth once we’ve mined them.

Given the astronomical amount of expenditure this will involve, there needs to be something seriously valuable to offset the cost of transporting it.

That’s without mentioning the fact that introducing a surplus of new precious materials on Earth would have the effect of greatly lowering its market value.

Who are the big players in this field?

Considering the price tags attached to this mission, a surprisingly large number of companies are currently working in this field. Alphabet’s Larry Page is backing Planetary Resources, although it’s worth mentioning that earlier this year the company was forced to make layoffs and delay its proposed 2020 prospecting mission after failing to raise much-needed money.

Deep Space Industries is another leader, with plans to develop technologies which will make it easier for governments and other private companies to gain access to orbit. Deep Space Industries has said that much of what it plans to mine would be used in space, rather than brought back to Earth (thereby avoiding one of the biggest costs.)

Then there are the likes of TransAstra Corporation, the U.K.’s Asteroid Mining Corporation, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket system, and more. Some days it seems you can throw a space rock without hitting one of these companies!

How would the mining actually be done?

Nobody has actually done this yet, so it’s still largely hypothetical. A lot of the same mining technologies which are used on Earth could presumably be employed for extracting materials, depending on their specific requirements. Water, meanwhile, could be extracted through heating materials and then distilling the water vapor.

At present, a number of different approaches are being explored. TransAstra Corporation, for instance, wants to use highly concentrated sunlight to break up asteroids for extraction.

What are the big bottlenecks?

Broadly speaking, there are two: the technical challenges and the legal ones. Right now, companies are coming up with ways to gather information about the asteroids in our orbit so as to determine their composition. After this, they will need to establish the most cost-effective way to launch a craft capable of carrying out the mining extraction itself.

Signing of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. United Nations

The legal challenge is every bit as thorny. Right now, we’re at the earliest stages for ruling who has the right to mine certain asteroids. The United Nations’ 1967 Outer Space Treaty has been signed by 106 countries — but this doesn’t address the topic in any great detail. In the U.S., congress signed the Space Act of 2015 into law several years back. This gives U.S. space firms permission to own and sell the natural resources they mine in space — asteroids included.

Make no mistake, however: This is going to keep lawyers every bit as busy as it will aerospace engineers. And especially if and when the money starts rolling in.

When will this happen?

That’s the $150 billion per asteroid question. J.L. Galache, an advisor to Deep Space Industries, thinks we’ll see the first asteroid mining in 10-20 years. Others predict considerably longer than that. Will it happen in your lifetime? We certainly hope so.

Sign me up. How do I get involved?

Got your eyes on an asteroid-mining fortune, eh? While we’re still a couple of decades (at least) away from the first rocks being mined, there are still ways to get involved. In August this year, the Colorado School of Mines launched the world’s first “Space Resources” degree course — offering proper certification in this sci-fi-sounding topic.

“I would compare this to aviation,” Dr. Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources and Research Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Colorado School of Mines, told Digital Trends. “The first academic programs started just a few years after the Wright brothers [pioneered the first airplanes]. People realized quickly that this was no longer just the field of daredevils and people looking for entertainment; it was going to become very important. The same thing happened with academic aerospace programs shortly after the launch of Sputnik. Even though going to the moon looked far away, there was a realization that this would happen. Universities have to be ahead of the curve so they can start preparing people to enter [new] fields.”

Editors’ Recommendations

• Want a future-proof degree? Head to Colorado for asteroid mining
• We asked Bill Nye about his plan to save Earth from civilization-ending asteroids
• Get your Sagan on with 60 awe-inspiring photos of the final frontier
• Japanese space probe to begin exploring asteroid Ryugu
• Airbus to build Mars rover to get first soil samples back to Earth

Belkin’s special machine puts an end to one hateful aspect of phone ownership

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Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

No-one, absolutely no-one, wants the task of attaching a screen protector to their phone. It’s never simple, and it almost inevitably ends up with dust, hair, or air bubbles between it and the screen. Belkin, the popular mobile accessory manufacturer, has a cool solution we tried out at IFA 2018. It doesn’t just handle the process of fitting the protector, but it avoids all the common pitfalls too.

Belkin already has a range of glass screen protectors for the current Apple iPhone range, and we got a demonstration on the iPhone X. To simplify the application of the screen protectors, and make its products more attractive, Belkin invested in the TrueClear Pro, a machine that does all the work. It’s the company’s own design, and you’ll find it in some Apple Stores now, with more coming to T-Mobile stores in the U.S., and a selection of retailers in the U.K. including John Lewis, Carphone Warehouse, and soon Vodafone stores too.

Think of the device as one of those sandwich makers you see in coffee shops, except instead of bread and a yummy filling being put inside, it’s your phone and a shiny new screen protector. It’s operated by the staff of the store you visit, and isn’t something you personally purchase. After removing the old screen protector and cleaning the screen on our iPhone X, it was placed upside down on a custom tray designed specifically for the phone, which holds it in place with the new screen protector. What happens next is almost magic.

The top is closed, the screen protector backing is pulled from the front of the machine, and the top is opened back up. The protector still has a plastic cover over the top so the glass does not get scratched while the air bubbles are pushed out. This gets ripped off, and it’s done. That’s it. No worrying it’s not on straight, no cat hair underneath, and no swearing as you realize you’ve made a mess and wasted $30.

Perfect fit

We got the ScreenForce Tempered Curve Screen Protector, which costs $40/35 British pounds, and fits the iPhone X perfectly — right down to matching the curved sides of the screen itself. It’s just 0.33mm thin, has a hardness rating of 9H — the highest you can get — and resists fingerprints. It feels very close to the iPhone X’s screen itself, unlike many plastic screen protectors. After it was fitted, there was a small air bubble left at the bottom of the screen, which disappeared the day after. So far, we’re enjoying having it on our phone.

Belkin’s screen protectors did cause some controversy late last year, when previous versions of its InvisiGlass Ultra covers broke quickly after installation. Updated versions returned to Apple Stores in February this year. We did not try out the InvisiGlass version. There are also questions over the effectiveness of screen protectors at all; but we have less of a problem when they don’t ruin the tactility of the original screen underneath, which the Belkin ScreenForce seems to avoid.

Belkin told us it recommends retailers with the TrueClear Pro machine charge only for the screen protector, and offer the fitting service for free. Some retailers may not follow this and charge for a more premium service. Almost regardless, having the screen protector fitted perfectly by someone else removes one of the most hateful aspects of smartphone ownership.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• With Dropit’s delivery service, you can literally shop till you drop