The best portable solar battery charger

By Mark Smirniotis

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read the full article here.

After considering 70 models and testing portable solar battery chargers for over 30 hours, we think the Anker PowerPort Solar Lite is the one to get if you need to power a small device in an emergency or off the grid. It can fully charge most phones at nearly full speed with less than a day’s worth of sunlight.

Who should get this

Honestly, a lot of people looking for a portable power solution are going to be better off starting with a USB battery pack. Our large battery pick will keep a smartphone charged every night for a week and is no bigger than a paperback novel. But if you can’t be sure of your power needs, a solar charger could refill a small battery pack in a day or directly charge a smartphone in two to three hours.

The catch is that these chargers work only with USB devices, which limits their appeal for those who need them for long-term, off-grid setups. If that’s you, you’ll probably be more interested in the larger setups from companies like Goal Zero or Suntactics. In the future, we may review these units, but for now, they’re outside the scope of this guide.

How we picked and tested

The Anker (bottom) and the now discontinued runner-up RAVPower (top) both returned to full-speed charging immediately after being shaded. Photo: Mark Smirniotis

We started with a pool of solar battery charger contenders culled from Amazon sales and user reviews, as well as authoritative review sites like OutdoorGearLab. In our survey of more than 400 readers, more than 40 percent said they would want to be able to charge a tablet and 59 percent said they wanted to spend less than $75, so we considered only models that can produce at least 2 amps, and ruled out some more-expensive offerings.

With cloudless, blue Southern California skies and an expected high in the 70s, we set out the panels we chose for testing at roughly a 25-degree angle at 10 a.m. and connected them to a PortaPow V2 Premium USB Power Monitor and an external USB battery. We disqualified any chargers unable to get back to their maximum output on their own once shaded. If you decide to leave your phone and solar charger out all afternoon to absorb some juice while you’re off hiking, you’d be pretty disappointed to find your phone charged for only a total of 15 minutes before a cloud passed by. That’s a dealbreaker.

Because we had a few models that didn’t carry this quirk, we tested them against one another to gauge power production. When they performed similarly, we chose the lighter, more compact of the three competitors as our winner.

Our pick

The PowerPort Solar Lite is the smallest and lightest charger we’ve tested that’s rated at 15 watts. Photo: Mark Smirniotis

If you need power for small devices when you’re away from electrical outlets for more than a couple of days, the Anker PowerPort Solar Lite has the best combination of charging speed, size, and price. Used alone, the Anker can fully recharge small tablets or one or two smartphones in one sunny day. If you pair the Anker with one of our favorite USB battery packs, the combination will have enough juice to keep your USB-powered gadgets fully charged every day for as long as needed. And although half of the chargers we tested slowed to a crawl when a cloud passed overhead, the Anker resumed full-speed charging almost immediately after the cloud was gone.

In direct winter sun, our peak measurement was 8.48 watts/1.67 amps, which may seem low compared with the 15 watts/2.1 amps production advertised in the specs. But after an entire day charging our test battery, the average 6 watts/1.17 amps got us 85 percent of the way to the total produced by the much larger and heavier RAVPower charger.

The Anker measures about 18 inches long when fully deployed—about half as long as the 31-inch RAVPower, making it much easier to orient toward the sun. Folded up and ready for travel, it measures 11 by 6.3 inches and weighs just 12.5 ounces. Models any larger don’t get you enough performance boost to justify the size, and any smaller won’t be able to keep up with modern, power-hungry gadgets. If anything goes wrong, Anker offers solid customer support, an 18-month warranty, and a track record of quality power accessories.

How to get the most from your charger

Making power from starlight. Photo: Mark Smirniotis

To really max out your power output, you’ll want your panels angled correctly. A good rule of thumb is that the panel’s angle, relative to flat ground, should be roughly the same as your latitude, with some minor adjustments in summer (shallower) or winter (steeper). If you really want to get the most juice, check sites such as solarpaneltilt.com, pveducation.org, or Solar Electricity Handbook to figure out the best angle before you go.

This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Eye tracking software can gauge your intent and boredom in VR

One of the singular things about virtual reality is the freedom to look in any direction. But that’s also one of its biggest narrative problems. How does a storyteller retain control when the viewer is free to decide where to look? The answer, it seems, is in the eyes.

Eyefluence, a company that’s rooted in optics, AI, machine learning and mechanical engineering, has built an interface that lets a user communicate with a virtual environment through sight alone. The idea is to convert looking into action. So the software enables you to use your eyes to do anything that you would do with a finger on a smartphone. No more typing, clicking, swiping or even talking. With a display in front of you, you would be able to navigate a menu, launch applications, pan, zoom and scroll, and even slip in information simply by looking.

Beyond the boost in productivity, though, one of the most compelling applications of this eye-machine interaction is in immersive storytelling. The eyes, when distracted or focused, can give away what a viewer is feeling in a moment. The Eyefluence software is designed to take advantage of those clues to know when you’re interested in a scene, captivated by a character or feeling bored.

“Your eyes are the fastest moving organs in your body,” says Eyefluence CEO and founder Jim Marggraff in a short film called The Language of Looking. The movie, embedded below, is a part of the annual Future of Storytelling summit that brings together inter-disciplinary innovators to discuss the challenges of telling stories in a digital world. Here, Marggraff explains the difficulty of immersive storytelling and how sight can be used to fire up an interface that pushes the narrative forward in virtual reality.

After watching the film, I spoke to Marggraff to find out how the eyes can have an impact on immersive storytelling in particular.

How does “the language of looking” fit into storytelling in VR?

There are a lot of problems in storytelling that need to be grappled with. I’ve sat with filmmakers and talked about the challenges that they have. [It starts with] shifting the mindset, to say we’re going to make the user a consequential participant in the story, meaning that what they do has a consequence in the arc of the story. It’s a new thinking. Typically, as a storyteller, you want complete control; you guide the [viewers’] eyes, their moods so they’re sensitive to the beats of the story as it unfolds. Essentially, every scene directs them and manages their emotions throughout. But now, by reclassifying the user as a participant, when you [let them] have consequence in the story, you give them a degree of autonomy.

“By reclassifying the user as a participant, when you let them have consequence in the story, you give them a degree of autonomy.”

Some of the known challenges with the medium are teleportation, locomotion and nausea. But more significant are some of the challenges in maintaining a sense of rhythm in the flow of the story. If I let you run off and start examining something around a corner, you don’t necessarily know how to stay engaged with that, you could put yourself in a boring position. How do we maintain that flow and the urgency in the beats of the story? It can be done. The software looks at the participant’s behavior to decide when it needs to move them along, when to deliver key points on the story level. So we know where you are, what you’re looking at, what you’re interested in and where you’ve lost interest. We can guide you back to the storyline at any time.

What is it about sight that makes it an appropriate solution for challenges in VR?

There are so many things we can do to take advantage of knowing what you see, what you’re aware of, what you’re not aware of and actually changing things around you without you even knowing. That all can happen with a deep understanding of how your eyes and your brain perceive information.

With the eyes, you can navigate in a large information space more rapidly than any thing else. Inside VR environments, for instance, where you have large amounts of information in a headset, you can look around. We give you the means to not just see a function [like a message or a browser] but activate it and move into a new space. For instance, you can search for photographs and find them more rapidly than before. It’s a mixture of purposeful and non-purposeful motions, to be able to search through a list of 1,000 names and find the one you’re looking for with your eyes only without scrolling, flicking or tapping. The eyes are the fastest moving part of your body. It’s as quick as thinking and looking. It’s quicker than even speaking to get things done.

But it’s also about what I like to call “sensuality” — it gets your senses engaged and the result is very satisfying. We’ve gotten feedback from people who say: “The system feels as if it’s reading your mind.” It’s not. It’s reading your intent and that comes from the signals. It’s a new kind of language that needs to be learned.

In the film you mention your collaboration with Rival Theory, the VR content studio that generates characters for virtual reality storylines. In what ways do the Eyefluence techniques work with these characters?

It works with characters that are in a live film or rendered, both have their beauty and challenges. Let’s consider a rendered character like [Rival Theory’s] that’s also an AI. It can have memory. It has a personality that evolves over time in relation to you as a participant, specifically with you. It knows you and the relationships you have. It comforts you in an upsetting event when you’ve cried. For example, if the character is a child who loses his best friend who slipped through a crevice while climbing and you see the child and you console them. That child character forms a connection with you based on eye interaction. The AI forms a memory of it and it can come back any time. It builds a bond between you and the character. We know the power of being able to look at someone, see when they avert your gaze, when their eyes well up in reaction to something you’ve said. This kind of connection has not existed before within the medium.

iPhone 7 Again Said to Ship With Lightning-to-3.5mm Headphone Dongle

With just over six weeks remaining until Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, leaked photos and rumors surrounding the smartphones are starting to become clear and consistent.

Deutsche Bank is the latest group to add its expectations to the mix, issuing a research note obtained by Business Insider that corroborates several previously rumored features coming in this year’s refresh.

New photo of iPhone 7 and 7 Plus rear shell molds (Image: KK低调 on Weibo)
The bank, which allegedly made supply chain checks, believes the 4.7-inch model will have an improved camera and optical image stabilization, while the larger 5.5-inch model is set to gain a dual-lens camera and 3GB of RAM.

Both models are also expected to have no headphone jack, a touch-sensitive home button with haptic feedback, a new darker color, “professional class” waterproofing, and improved sound, possibly by way of stereo speakers.

Perhaps the most interesting bit is Deutsche Bank’s belief that the iPhone 7 will ship with a Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack dongle in the box, rather than Lightning-based EarPods as previously speculated.

Many aftermarket Lightning-to-3.5mm adapters are bulky and clunky looking due to the need for a digital-to-analog converter, however, so it remains to be seen if Apple could create a dongle that meets its high standards of design.

Every single one of Deutsche Bank’s predictions have surfaced previously:

– No 3.5mm headphone jack: WSJ, Fast Company, Mac Otakara, and many others
– Dual-lens camera for iPhone 7 Plus: Ming-Chi Kuo, Mac Otakara, and many others
– 3GB of RAM for iPhone 7 Plus: Ming-Chi Kuo
– Touch-sensitive home button: DigiTimes, Cowen and Company
– Improved waterproofing: WSJ, Fast Company, DigiTimes, Commercial Times, Weibo
– Stereo speakers: DigiTimes, Mac Otakara
– A new darker color: Mac Otakara and leaked photo
– Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter: Mac Otakara

Apple is widely expected to announce the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in September. Other rumored features include a faster TSMC-made Apple A10 processor, repositioned antenna bands, faster LTE and Wi-Fi, a slightly larger battery, and a minimum 32GB of base storage. A larger 256GB model may also be available.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Experiment with face swaps in a snap with this new search engine

Ah, the future. You don’t even have to use Cosmopolitan Virtual Makeover to try on different hairstyles and other looks these days even if you aren’t proficient with Photoshop. All you need is a selfie to try out curly hair, the 1930s or even a different culture.

It’s possible using Dreambit, a face-swapping search engine that automatically analyzes any photo you upload and figures out how to crop it into images you search for. Your results incorporate your face, cropped and colorized and adapted to the images you receive. It sure does beat the heck out of doing it all manually.

Created by computer vision researcher Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman at the University of Washington, Dreambit is an interesting tool that can and will be used for tons of silly applications, but the serious implications it has are infinite as well. In a press release, Shlizerman noted how the engine could be used in missing persons cases as it can adapt how victims in said cases can change their looks over time. As the software’s still in beta, however, it’s far from use by law enforcement just yet.

Dreambit will be on display at SIGGRAPH next week, but unfortunately it’s not available to the public just yet. You can, however, sign up for beta access right now if you’re so inclined.

Via: TechCrunch

EFF sues US government to void ‘onerous’ copyright rules

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has sued the US government in an attempt to overturn a part of the DMCA that it says violates the First Amendment. The provisions, contained in Section 1201, restrict user access to purchased content including videos, music and the software used in cars, appliances and devices. “The First Amendment preserves our right to … research and talk about the computer code that controls so much of our world,” says EFF Staff Attorney Kit Walsh. “Section 1201 threatens ordinary people with financial ruin or even a prison sentence for exercising those freedoms.”

Section 1201 was originally enacted to combat piracy, but has instead has “served to restrict people’s ability to access, use and even speak about copyrighted materials,” the EFF says. It can inhibit, for example, a buyer’s ability to repair their own device, remix music or video and study software installed in cars, computers and other devices. Firms often sue users even when they make “fair use” of content for things like satire or criticism, a practice that’s full protected by free speech laws.

The organization is suing on behalf of two individuals well known in the tech world, inventor Andrew “bunnie” Huang (who recently worked with Edward Snowden on a cellphone signal-blocking device) and John Hopkins security researcher Matthew Green. Huang is interested in developing devices that would allow consumers to add Twitter comments, captions and other overlays to high-definition video, but fears running afoul of the law. “Section 1201 prevents the act of creation from being spontaneous,” said Huang, who added that America will soon fall behind other nations in tech if the law isn’t changed.

YouTube is a frequent target of DMCA takedown orders.

Matthew Green and his students have uncovered security flaws in vehicles, Apple’s iMessage text system and the encryption used for the web. He calls such work a “precious commodity,” but says that a lot of companies don’t feel that way, even when it ultimately benefits them. “Companies use the courts to silence researchers who have embarrassing things to say about their products, or who uncover too many of those products’ internal details,” Green said on his blog.

Working with its own counsel and a private law firm specializing in tech law, the EFF is challenging the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions contained in Section 1201. While the organization is suing the US government, it’s also likely to face the MPAA and RIAA, which represent the recording and motion picture industries in the US. Those associations are often the ones filing lawsuits and takedown notices against consumers, and have reportedly spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying in Washington.

Via: Fast Company

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation

Apple Takes Top Spot in FutureBrand’s Ranking of World’s Favorite Companies

FutureBrand recently released the results of a survey that questioned 3,000 consumers about the 100 biggest companies in the world, asking them to score each company on 18 different factors like trust, innovation, individuality, and price premium. The 2016 results crowned Apple as the top company in the world, “in terms of perception strength, rather than financial strength” (via CNET).

Some of the highest marks Apple received this year surrounded its individuality, authenticity, and purpose, while it scored less well in resource management, wellbeing, and respect among the consumers surveyed. Compared to the second-place entry in the Top 100 listing, Microsoft, Apple edges out ever so slightly in personality and consistency, while customers questioned believed Microsoft to be more innovative than Apple.

Technology companies occupy the top two spots in this year’s rankings and enjoy strong perceptions across our measures. Six of the twenty four ‘future brands’ are in the technology sector – one fewer than in 2015.

A ‘future brand’ is a brand that is more likely to succeed in the future, not just one that is strong now. This is because it perfectly balances strong perceptions of its purpose in the world with the experience it delivers.

Apple’s 2016 win comes after it lost the top spot to Google last year, but a bit of behind-the-scenes reorganization seems to be the reason for the search engine company’s egress from FutureBrand’s list this year. Since Google is considered wholly part of parent company Alphabet, only the latter could appear as a contender for Apple’s first place spot. But consumer knowledge — or lack thereof — surrounding Alphabet and its relationship with Google most likely led to Alphabet’s 21st place ranking.

The rest of the top spots are rounded out by companies like Disney, Amazon, Samsung, Toyota, and Facebook. Specifically in the Technology Sector, Apple’s numbers rise even higher. The Cupertino company is 36 percent above the sector average when it comes to thought leadership, and 33 percent above the average in terms of consistency in producing high quality products. Similarly, many survey respondents confirmed they would like to work for Apple (37 percent above sector average), and that they would buy its products (39 percent above sector average).

You can look over FutureBrand’s 2016 rankings here.

Tag: FutureBrand
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