Verizon starts selling the Moto Z and Moto Z Force

You can now pick up the Moto Z Droid Edition and the Moto Z Force Droid Edition from Verizon, with both phones exclusive to the carrier until this fall. The Moto Z Droid Edition is available for $26 monthly, or $624 outright, and the Moto Z Force Droid Edition will set you back $30 monthly, or $720 outright.

The main difference between the two phones is that the Moto Z Force Droid Edition has a ShatterShield display, giving an added layer of protection from drops and tumbles. The feature works exactly as advertised. The Moto Z Force also has a larger 3500mAh battery against the 2600mAh battery on the Moto Z, and a higher-resolution 21MP camera versus the 13MP on the Moto Z. There’s no 3.5mm jack, so you’ll have to rely on a USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter to connect your 3.5mm audio gear.

There’s a lot to know about these phones, so be sure to check out our in-depth coverage of the Moto Z Droid Edition and the Moto Z Force Droid Edition:

• Moto Z and Moto Z Force review
• Moto Z or Moto Z Force — which should you get?
• Which Moto Mods should you buy?

Either phone works just fine without MotoMods, but the modular accessories definitely augment the experience. Here’s what’s available at launch:

• Motorola Insta-Share projector: $299.99
• JBL Soundboost speaker: $79.99
• 2200mAh battery pack (Incipio, Tumi, and Kate Spade): $59.99 to $89.99
• Moto Style Shell: $14.99

The phones are available in white and black color variants, and if you buy a MotoMod, Verizon is offering a 20% discount on additional mods. Let us know if you’re interested in picking up the Moto Z or Moto Z Force Droid Editions.

See at Verizon

Moto Z and Moto Z Force

• Our Moto Z review!
• Moto Z specs
• Moto Mods custom backs
• Moto Z and Moto Z Force will be Verizon exclusives until the fall of 2016
• The latest Moto Z news
• Discuss in our Moto Z forums

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Here’s what you need to know about LeEco, the Chinese brand that just acquired Vizio

The brand you’ve never heard of is going to be everywhere soon.

Earlier this week, LeEco made its first major investment in the U.S. electronics segment with the acquisition of TV maker Vizio for $2 billion. Vizio is the second-largest TV vendor in the U.S. with a market share of 20%. While LeEco is a relative unknown in Western markets, it has a huge presence in China, and is making inroads into the Indian mobile segment.

To get an inkling as to why a phone company bought a TV maker, you’ll need to know about LeEco’s unique business model. LeEco isn’t your traditional phone manufacturer. The brand started out as a video streaming service and is often dubbed the “Netflix of China” even though it started investing in original programming three years before the launch of Netflix. LeEco’s diverse content portfolio is the main reason for its acquisition of Vizio, as the move gives the Chinese brand a foothold in the U.S. market for its streaming, internet TV, and cloud-based services. The acquisition allows Vizio to expand its global presence by leveraging LeEco’s distribution and localised content streaming services.

LeEco isn’t just into phones and TVs either. The vendor debuted an autonomous electric car called the LeSEE earlier this year, and has invested in California-based electric car maker Faraday Future. To date, these are the segments LeEco is doing business in: smartphones, smart TVs, video streaming, music streaming, live sports broadcasts, film production, cloud storage, electric cars, smart bikes, and even real estate.

Coming over to phones, LeEco is the first brand to eschew the ubiquitous 3.5mm jack for USB-C audio in its 2016 offerings, the Le 2 and Le Max 2. The vendor has announced that it will launch its first phone in the U.S. market later this year, but before it does that, it is looking to partner with content providers for its music and video streaming services.

Le phones

LeEco’s phones for 2016 are the budget Le 2 and the flagship Le Max 2. Both phones offer USB-C audio, and very compelling hardware for the price. Highlights of the Le 2 — which retails for the equivalent of $150 in India — include a 5.5-inch Full HD display, Snapdragon 652 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 32GB storage, USB-C, and a 3000mAh battery.

The Le Max 2 retails for what amounts to $340, and for that amount you get a 5.7-inch QHD display, 2.15GHz Snapdragon 820 SoC, 4GB of RAM, 32GB storage, 21MP camera, USB-C, and a 3100mAh battery. There’s a model with 6GB of RAM and 64GB storage that sells for $440, or $40 more than the retail price of the OnePlus 3.

LeEco is able to sell phones for ridiculously low prices as it doesn’t rely on hardware to drive profits. The brand sees phones, TVs, and even cars as delivery systems for its digital content platform. To this end, the manufacturer rolled out a free hardware day in China earlier this year, where it gave away phones, TVs, and accessories for free to those buying content subscriptions. LeEco is committing to what it calls the “ecosystem era”, wherein hardware is irrelevant and consumers rely on content services to derive value from a particular device.

In 2015, LeEco managed to sell a modest 3 million handsets, but is forecasting 15 million sales this year.

Read our Le Max 2 review

Digital content ecosystem

In China, LeEco draws over 350 million monthly users for its digital content services, with the brand offering over 10,000 TV shows and 5,000 movies. The company started out as a video streaming service, but has since branched out into music, live sports, film production, and cloud storage over the course of the last five years. All of LeEco’s content services are bundled into a single package dubbed the LeEco Membership.

Le Vision Pictures

Le Vision Pictures is the sixth-largest film distributor in China, and the production house has financed and distributed several Hollywood movies in China, including * The Expendables* franchise. The studio is now co-producing The Great Wall, starring Matt Damon. The production house has offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles.

LeEco Drive

With LeEco Drive, you get 5TB of cloud storage as long as you subscribe to LeEco’s digital content platform. The service is set to go live sometime later this quarter, and will be rolled out to Le 2 and Le Max 2 users through an OTA update.

Le Music

Le Music is LeEco’s music streaming service. In India, the service is powered by Hungama, a local streaming provider that offers a catalog of 9.5 million songs. The catalog is much more extensive in China, where it is one of the largest streaming services available.

Le Vidi

Le Vidi is LeEco’s video recommendation service, which offers a curated YouTube feed with a smattering of content from LeEco’s partners. In India, that includes movies from Eros Now, a provider of regional movies.

Le Live

As the name suggests, Le Live delivers live TV to your phone. The channels that you’ll be able to view are tailored for your region, and LeEco is also planning to stream live from music festivals.

LeSports

LeEco has invested nearly $1.35 billion in LeSports, with the venture now valued at $3.3 billion. The service has exclusive streaming rights to the Chinese Super League for two years, a three-year deal with the Major League Baseball to stream baseball games in China and Hong Kong, and live broadcast rights to the English Premier League in Hong Kong until 2019. LeSports also has broadcast rights from FIFA, UEFA, the ATP, NFL, and the NCAA.

TVs

LeEco sold 2.85 million TVs in China last year, earnings $86 million on sales of $2 billion. The brand already offers TVs directly in the U.S. via its LeMall website, selling over 30,000 units in the first week of its debut. The Vizio acquisition will allow LeEco to get its content ecosystem on the second-largest TV manufacturer in the country.

Furthermore, with most of its ecosystem bets envisaged for the long-term, the TV business is one of few areas where LeEco is making profits right now.

Faraday Future and Aston Martin

LeEco is also a major investor in Faraday Future, and the platform developed by the California company for its EV will be used by LeEco in the LeSEE.

Earlier this year, LeEco partnered with Aston Martin to roll out the Internet of the Vehicle in-car infotainment system. The brand is also working with the luxury car maker over the development of the RapidE electric vehicle, which will offer a power output equivalent to 1000bhp.

While LeEco is betting big on electric vehicles, some have questioned whether the brand will be able to deliver a consumer-ready vehicle given the sheer amount of money it takes to develop a car from the ground-up. Even if there’s no clear timeline as to when we’ll see an electric car from LeEco, the company has done a remarkable job of vertically integrating its services in such a short period of time.

LG posts Q2 profit in spite of $132 million loss from the mobile unit

LG has announced its Q2 2016 earnings, recording an operating profit of $503.1 million (584.6 billion won) over revenues of $12.05 billion (14 trillion won). Strong sales of home appliances and TVs offset the mobile unit’s operating loss of $132 million.

LG’s mobile unit recorded a $170 million loss in the last quarter as well. The LG G5 managed to net a 12% increase in revenue from the previous quarter to $2.86 billion (3.33 trillion won), but the modular phone did not have the impact LG was hoping for. Shipments at 13.9 million units was a modest increase over the 13.5 million recorded in Q1 2016.

The brand noted that it met with “increased marketing expenditures and somewhat slow initial sales of G5 smartphone.” Looking forward to Q3, LG is aiming for the V20 to boost sales in the high-end segment, with the K and X lineup of phones competing in the budget segment.

Elsewhere, the home appliance division posted a profit of $373.24 million (433.7 billion won). The TV segment recorded a $306.97 million (356.7 billion won) operating profit on revenues of $3.58 billion (4.16 trillion won), with LG witnessing a healthy increase in sales of high-end 4K TVs.

Hyundai Ioniq Electric review: Fully charged

Hyundai has opted to launch three different green driving solutions in one with the new Ioniq. The idea is simple: Hyundai offers one platform and you choose whether you want Hybrid, Electric or Plug-in Hybrid. 

Options are few, making this a relatively straight-forward decision-making process. The idea is to create a car that’s accessible to as wide a range of people as possible.

Where the Hybrid squares up to a number of models – namely the Prius, but also Toyota’s wider selection of hybrids – the Ioniq Electric faces less competition. There are e-versions of established models across some car manufacturers – like the Volkswagen e-Golf – but cars designed to be electric from the get-go are rarer. Nissan dominates the UK’s roads with the Leaf, there’s the odd Renault Zoe sighting, while BMW has a healthy following with its i3 and Tesla is creeping in at the top-end. 

So can Hyundai muscle in on the fledgling electric car segment with the Ioniq Electric, an electric car for the mainstream?

Hyundai Ioniq Electric review: Design

The Ioniq comes from the same school of thought as the Toyota Prius and that explains some of the similarity in design. The aim is to make this car as efficient as possible. That doesn’t immediately mean giving it a sports car profile, rather considering how the air passes over and under to keep drag to a minimum.

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As we mentioned in the prologue, thie electric Ioniq is the same design as the hybrid version that we’ve already reviewed, so we won’t dwell too long on repeating the same information – that the doors are a little thin in feel and don’t make that reassuring crunch when you close them.

• Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid review: Hyundai’s happy hybrid

However, we do think that the Ioniq Electric looks slightly better than the Hybrid, because there’s that futuristic silver panel stuffed in the front, rather than the grille of the Hybrid.

As there’s no air needed for an engine, there’s no need to be sucking in air through the front. Sure, Hyundai could have had an entirely different bumper assembly for a seamless look, but manufacturing more parts would push the price up. To highlight this as the electric version, there are highlights to the cabin and exterior in a copper colour.

Having spent some time with the Ioniq (in two of its three forms) we have grown to like the design. It succeeds in offering conventionality, whereas the Prius is getting a little odd; it offers practicality over the Nissan Leaf and range-limited Renault Zoe, with better looks and more space; we’d perhaps say that the BMW i3 is a better looking car with plenty of appeal, but it’s more expensive (although its lease options make it potentially affordable for business owners).

That sees the Ioniq Electric slotting into a space where you get quite a lot of electric car for your money.

Hyundai Ioniq Electric review: On the road

But once you slip into the driving seat, the Ioniq Electric feels a little more like the car you want it to be. The Hybrid is a good car – it’s attractively priced, well loaded with tech and perfectly comfortable – but as soon as you pull away in the Ioniq Electric, the benefits of that instant delivery of electric power becomes apparent.

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There’s a lithium-ion polymer battery sitting under the backseat and boot floor, with a 28kWh capacity, connected to a front electric motor delivering the equivalent of 120bhp, or 295Nm torque. That’s all delivered instantly, meaning you can pull away with pace. This isn’t Tesla’s Insane or Ludicrous speed, but a comfortable and sensible delivery of the power to take you to 62mph in 10.2-seconds. 

That’s not exactly fast, but it can be boosted in Sport mode, which claims a 9.9-second time to 62mph. Again, the Ioniq isn’t a dragster, but it is pacey enough to keep up with average driving.

But all this is delivered in relative silence, the cabin cosseted from the outside and one reduction gear taking the motor’s power and transmitting it to the front wheels smoothly. Like many modern cars, there’s regenerative braking to recoup energy back into the battery.

Pocket-lint

One of the fun things the Ioniq Electric offers is different levels of regenerative braking controlled via paddles on the steering column, in the same sort of location you’ll find manual gear shift levers on high-end automatics. In this case, however, you can turn the regeneration up or down, basically by increasing the friction applied when you lift off the power. 

Set to the highest level and this noticeably slows the car; it can make braking fairly jerky, but we can see that with time you’ll learn what level you can use smoothly. Coasting down a hill and we’re sure that you’ll be able to use it to best effect. Other EVs and hybrids offer similar systems, but not always as directly controlled.

Hyundai Ioniq Electric review: Range and charging 

The Ioniq claims a 174 mile range, when using 11.5kWh per 100km. Those are the on-paper figures: we can’t report on the longer-term real-world figures without more time living with the Ioniq, but our model reported 13.4kWh per 100km from its on-board computer. That compares favourably with the Nissan Leaf’s 30kW, which offers a 15kWh per 100km consumption; and the BMW i3, which cites a 12.6kWh per 100km (again, both on paper, not real-world figures).

Pocket-lint

When it comes to charging, there are three options, as is usually the case. You can charge from a domestic wall socket, although that’s slow and will take 10-12 hours, but with fast-charging from a wall box coming in at 4-6 hours, and the ability to rapid charge to 80 per cent of the battery in 33-minutes from a 50kW CCS tethered public charging point, you should be able to handle decent length journeys without too much worry about range.

To help you manage your power consumption, there’s a breakdown on what is using power, as accessed via the central display. Here you’ll see what the car’s electric systems are pulling, as well as what the aircon might be using. There are also other clever features, like being able to set the charging times – to take advantage of off-peak tariffs – as well as cabin pre-conditioning, so your car can be cooled (or heated) while it’s still connected to the power supply, rather than only when you’re on the road.

Hyundai Ioniq Electric review: All the tech you could want 

One of the important elements in electric driving is satnav. The idea is that satnav will help you navigate and find those electric charging points so you’re never going to get stuck and this is one of the reasons that the Ioniq Electric only comes at the Premium and Premium SE trim levels.

Pocket-lint

Hyundai doesn’t really do options. You buy the car, pick the trim level and that delivers with a huge range of mod cons. And this list is almost silly.

Pick the Ioniq Electric Premium and all this comes as standard: dual-zone aircon, automatic emergency braking, lane keep assistance, rear parking sensors and rear camera, auto headlights and wipers, Bluetooth, 8-inch central touch display with satnav and TomTom Live services, Android Auto nad Apple CarPlay, heated front seats, Infinity sound system with subwoofer, auto dimming rear mirror, wireless phone charging, and keyless entry. Now breathe.

Stepping up to Premium SE gets you leather seats which offer cooling, blind spot detection and more.

In short, the Hyundai Ioniq Electric offers so much technology that you can’t help but see it as good value for money. There’s little that we can think of that’s missing and all of this comes in at a reasonable price point too.

Pocket-lint

On the road this all comes together nicely. The driver’s display is mostly digital, switching to a more aggressive red coloured rev counter when you’re in sports mode. We’ve seen similar on the BMW i8 and this is the same idea, even if it’s not quite the same result. The inclusion of range info and satnav details on the driver’s display makes for plenty of info and all easily controlled. 

Verdict

The Hyundai Ioniq Electric is a great addition to the electric options on the UK’s roads. It slices into the middle of the existing pack, offering good value for money, plenty of range and all the technology you could want. 

For us, this is perhaps an easy alternative to cars like the Renault Zoe or Nissan Leaf, although both of those are available for less – but in cheaper forms offer a little less for the money too (and the Zoe has potential issues with battery “loan” terms). The Ioniq Electric looks to present a mid-range electric option and does so well. 

The Ioniq Electric also comes with a 5-year warranty for the car (as is standard for Hyundai) but will offer an additional 8-year 125,000-mile warranty on the battery. This should off-set any doubts, but ultimately, we’re yet to discover exactly what the long-term performance of the Ioniq Electric will be like.

The Hyundai Ioniq is safe and sensible. It’s well positioned, competitively priced and well specced. If you’re looking to go electric without breaking the bank, it’s certainly a car to be considered.

Sky’s ‘Buy & Keep’ store now sells movie and TV box sets

It’s taken a while, but Sky has finally come through on its promise to add TV shows to its “Buy & Keep” service. Just like its film offering, anyone in the UK can pay a single price to get both a physical and digital version of a TV box set. The former is a DVD in the post, while the latter is served through the “digital Box Sets store” available on Sky+HD and Sky Q set-top boxes, as well as the Sky Store mobile app. If you’re not with Sky, you can grab the digital versions through a Now TV, Roku or YouView box instead.

Movie box sets — think the Toy Story trilogy, the Fast & Furious collection and Pitch Perfect one and two — are also being added to the mix. Prices start at £13.99 for a film compilation and £22.99 for a TV box set. That’s a little on the expensive side, although it’s worth stressing that you’re buying both a permanent copy and one stored in the cloud. If you were to buy two versions separately — a physical copy in HMV and a digital one through iTunes, for instance — you would probably pay the same, if not more.

Source: Sky

Samsung posts highest profits in over two years thanks to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

Strong sales of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge have led to Samsung posting an operating profit of $7.22 billion (8.14 trillion won) in Q2 2016, up 18% from the same period a year ago. Overall revenue was $45.1 billion (50.94 trillion won), a 5% increase from Q2 2015.

The handset business accounted for half of Samsung’s bottom line, with the division netting $3.83 billion (4.32 trillion won) in profit on a revenue of $23.5 billion (26.56 trillion won). Samsung noted that the larger and more expensive S7 edge model made up over half of the sales of its flagship series, with the Galaxy A series and J series also seeing an uptick in sales in the mid-range and low-end segments.

Looking ahead to the third quarter, Samsung says that the launch of a new large-screen flagship phone (the Galaxy Note 7, if you’re wondering) “will help to maintain solid sales of high-end smartphones led by the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge:”

Samsung will focus on increasing smartphone sales under strong seasonality with the launch of a new model, while expecting marketing expenses to increase QOQ due to seasonality.

Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge

• Galaxy S7 review
• Galaxy S7 edge review
• U.S. unlocked Galaxy S7
• Should you upgrade to the Galaxy S7?
• Best SD cards for Galaxy S7
• Join our Galaxy S7 forums

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BigScreen adds audio sharing to fulfill its ‘Virtual LAN’ promise

BigScreen launched in beta back in April as a software solution to run conventional apps or films on a “screen” within VR for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets. But one of its coolest features, sharing your digital monitor with friends, was hampered by the program’s inability to send along any accompanying audio. Today, BigScreen is fixing that, adding the ability to hear exactly what your friend is listening to in a setup the team calls “Desktop Audio Streaming.”

Essentially, this lets you share audio exactly as you’re hearing it from every source you have open — except BigScreen itself, which would create a horrific echo loop. Multiple people can tune in to hear the same thing, but only the room’s host can broadcast sound. It’s a minor limitation, but it also prevents random folks from dropping into the room and blasting music. Counter-Strike and Call of Duty players know that pain.

For details on how to set up BigScreen to finally achieve the “VR LAN party” they promised, check out this Reddit post by the company’s CEO. You’ll need to install a separate audio driver, a temporary fix that the team hopes to replace with an internal one in the future while they clean up the other bugs. Sure, the software’s a little rough, but it’s difficult to complain when they’re offering it free on Steam.

Via: Upload VR

Source: BigScreen subreddit