MIT builds low-cost synthetic muscles out of nylon cord
Researchers have been trying to build durable, low-cost synthetic muscles for years but to no avail. The systems developed so far have either been too expensive to produce en mass (like carbon nanotube) or too delicate and power hungry (looking at you, shape-memory alloys) to be useful outside of laboratory conditions. But a team from MIT have just struck upon the Goldilocks zone of robo-muscles with nylon fiber of all things.
The secret, according to a report published Wednesday to the journal Advanced Materials, lies in how the fibers are shaped and heated. See, nylon fibers have this weird natural property that, when you heat them, they contract in length but expand in diameter. That makes them ideal for linear movement, like lifting a weight straight up. But getting nylon to bend as it contracts is not as simple.
Typically, getting nylon to bend as it heats requires pulleys to take up the slack, which adds weight, complexity and cost to the system — the three exact things you want to avoid in creating a mass-produced technology. But the MIT team figured out a clever workaround. Using normal nylon filament, the team first compressed it to change the fiber’s cross-section from circular to square. They then heated just one side of the fiber, causing it to contract faster than the unheated side and forcing the entire strand to bend. The heat source can be anything from electrical resistance to chemical reactions — even lasers. The fibers are surprisingly resilient, lasting for 100,000 cycles and capable of contracting up to 17 times per second.
This breakthrough could lend itself to a wide variety of industrial and commercial applications. Like powered clothing that automatically contracts to your precise body shape, which means everything on the rack is in your size. These fibers could also be used in cars and airplanes. Remember that BMW GINA concept car with the adjustable “skin”? With these fibers, a vehicle’s exterior could reshape itself on the fly to minimize drag. The technology could even lend itself to self-adjusting catheters for insulin pumps. And eventually, we may even see them in biomimetic robot muscles. Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on how quickly these fibers will make it beyond MIT’s labs.
Via: YouTube
Source: MIT
Digital cameras can basically see in the dark now
We all love a good camera. But for many, photography isn’t a just a hobby, it’s a way of life. While you could put faster film in an analog camera to boost low-light performance, digital cameras offer flexibility at a level we couldn’t have dreamed of 20 years ago. They’ve now progressed to a point where top-of-the-range devices have ISO performance so impressive that they can capture video in almost pitch-black conditions.
Testing out Sony’s new A99 II, YouTuber Bramansde shows what can be achieved with ISO boosting alone, recording a crystal clear image in a room lit by only two candles. We’ve already started putting the A99 II through its paces, and are loving it so far, but this video is too impressive not to share:
We apologize for making your Christmas list that bit more expensive.
Source: Bramansde (YouTube)
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro review: Stumbling out of the gate
I just spent 15 minutes wandering around the office, trying to shoot ghouls in the face with lightning. Before that, I dropped a virtual rococo sofa into the empty space next to my desk, just to see if it would fit. And before that, I measured… well, everything. Welcome to the augmented life, courtesy of Google and Lenovo. Google has spent more than two years taking its “Tango” technology from project to full-blown product. The goal: to help our gadgets examine the world around them and overlay information — or even whole new worlds — on top of the reality we already know. Along the way, Google tapped Lenovo to help craft the first consumer-ready Tango device: an enormous slab of a phone called the Phab 2 Pro. And now it’s here.
If the Tango stuff alone didn’t make the Phab 2 Pro a groundbreaking device, this is also the first Lenovo-branded smartphone to land in the United States. Too bad it’s not quite ready for primetime.
Hardware
I can’t emphasize this enough: The Phab 2 Pro ($500) is enormous. Then again, how could it be anything but? We have plenty of things to thank for that, from the phone’s 6.4-inch IPS LCD screen to the bank of capacitive buttons below it, to the massive 4,050mAh battery under the hood. Of course, the real reason the Phab 2 Pro is so big is because of all the Tango tech Google helped squeeze inside. It’s worth remembering that Google’s Tango reference device for developers was a tablet with a 7-inch screen, one of NVIDIA’s Tegra K1 chipsets and two — two! — batteries.
That Google and Lenovo managed to squeeze all the requisite bits into a mostly pocketable smartphone is a feat unto itself. There are, after all, plenty of non-standard parts here. Just look at the Phab 2’s back if you don’t believe me. Nestled between the 16-megapixel camera and the fingerprint sensor are two more cameras — one has an infrared emitter to determine how far things are from the phone, and the other is a wide-angle camera with a fisheye lens that works as part of Tango’s motion tracking system. Turns out, Lenovo had to punch a hole in the phone’s main circuit board to make room for all those sensors.
Those cameras and sensors work in tandem with a customized version of Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 652 processor. We’ve seen more conventional versions of this mid-range chip pop up in devices like ASUS’s new ZenFone, but the version we have here has been tuned to more accurately timestamp the data captured by all of the phone’s sensors. Why? To keep the phone’s location in lockstep with all the crazy AR stuff you’ll see on screen. Also onboard are 4GB of RAM, an Adreno 510 GPU, 64GB of storage, a micro-USB port and a tray that takes either two SIM cards or a SIM card and a microSD card as big as 128GB.
So, long story short, the Phab 2 Pro is massive, and for good reason. The last time I played with a non-Phab phone this big was three years ago, when Sony launched a version of its Xperia Z Ultra running a clean version Android in the Google Play Store. Since then, the market has coalesced around big smartphones with screens about 5.5 inches big. Years of similarly sized devices, then, means the Phab 2 Pro feels extra unwieldy.
It would’ve been more of a problem if Lenovo hadn’t done such a good job putting the Phab 2 Pro together; the body is carved out of a single block of aluminum and the screen is covered by a sheet of Gorilla Glass that’s ever-so-slightly curved around the edges for that subtle “2.5D” effect everyone seems to love. The aesthetic is pleasant enough if you’re into minimalist design, and big-phone fans are probably going to drool too. If you’re thinking of getting one, though, best if you can get hands-on before taking the plunge.
Display and sound
The 6.4-inch screen on the Phab 2 Pro is indeed massive, but mostly unremarkable. Lenovo went with an “assertive” IPS LCD screen, which basically means the panel can optimize colors and contrast on the pixel level. It’s a handy trick for when you’re traipsing around outdoors — it’s excellent under direct sunlight — but the screen is otherwise forgettable.
Don’t get me wrong: Its 2,560 x 1,440 resolution means it’s still plenty crisp, even if it isn’t as pixel dense as other devices because of how big the panel is. Color reproduction is accurate too, though it’ll definitely feel a little flat if you’re coming from a device with an AMOLED screen like the Galaxy S7. What’s more, brightness is respectable — this screen is just a touch dimmer than the iPhone 7 Plus’ — and viewing angles are also pretty great. I half-expected the screen to be worse since it would have been a likely place for Lenovo to cut corners on a $500 phone.
The sound quality lags behind screen quality, but that’s no surprise. The Phab 2 Pro has a single speaker carved into its bottom edge, which makes for anemic, muddy sounding music, with bass notes utterly lacking in oomph. It’s fine for sound effects in Tango-enabled games, but headphones are otherwise a must. It helps that the Phab 2 Pro ships with a Dolby Atmos app that launches automatically when headphones are plugged in. Included are presets for music, movies, games and voices (say, for podcasts), and in general they added a decent amount of oomph to my audio. Music in particular felt a little punchier and more expansive, though the results seemed to vary from song to song.
Software
Motorola has long been a fan of near-stock Android, and I’m glad its parent company Lenovo seems just as fond of it. The Phab 2 Pro ships with a build of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow that has been left almost completely untouched. Seriously, there are no extra widgets, no visual junk, no bloatware. If you put the Tango-specific stuff aside, there are but a few add-ons: an app for simple file sharing, another for cloud backups, a sound recorder, a Dolby Atmos app for audio tuning and Accuweather. The rest of Lenovo’s work on the software front is much subtler, and largely meant to make using such a big phone easier.
Rather than picking up the phone to see what time it is, for instance, you can toggle an option to wake the device by double-tapping the screen. Still another option causes the lock screen’s PIN input pad and the phone’s dialer pad to slide to the left or right depending on how the Phab 2 is tilted so you don’t have to stretch your thumbs across the screen.
And if you’re in luck if you’ve been looking for a smarter alternative to the traditional home button. There’s an option for a floating on-screen button that provides quick access to all three traditional Android navigation keys, plus the screen lock, calculator, audio recorder and flashlight. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to whip out a calculator all that often, so the inability to change any of those shortcuts is a little frustrating. You can add a second page of app shortcuts too, though the resulting grid of icons looks pretty ugly.
Lenovo’s light touch with software is appreciated, but it’s far from perfect. Certain apps (here’s looking at you, Gmail) offer notifications that are hard to read because some of the text is too dark against the translucent gray notification shade. The problem is even worse when you’re using a dark wallpaper, and surprise: a good chunk of the included wallpapers, including the one that’s on by default, do indeed fall into that category.
Life with Tango
As I write this, there are 35 Tango apps available in the Google Play Store, and broadly speaking they fall into one of two categories: tools and games. I’m not going to dissect all of them — not unless you all really, really want me to — but there are recurring themes across these apps that speak to the larger experience of living with Tango.
Despite all the whimsical, weird stuff we’ve seen Tango do in the past, Google is making it clear the tech can help you get stuff done too. The Phab 2 Pro ships with Google’s Measure app, for one, which does exactly what its name suggests. Fire up the app, point at something, tap to drop an anchor, then tap to drop an anchor at that something’s endpoint. Congratulations, you just measured something without having to grab a tape measure. The Lowe’s Vision app has a similar trick, and when Tango’s sensors cooperate, the results can be very accurate indeed.
That’s definitely not a given, though. Let’s say you’re measuring the edge of a box or a desk. The depth sensor sometimes has trouble figuring out where the edge begins, and you have to maneuver just right to tap on the correct spot. (To Google’s credit, Measure says it offers estimates instead of hard numbers.)
Tango recurring theme #1: The Phab 2 Pro occasionally fails at figuring out what it’s pointed at, even in bright conditions.
Speaking of, we’ve seen Lowe’s app used in Tango demos for ages now. In fact, the Phab 2 Pro will even be sold in select Lowe’s stores. Even so, it’s still fun filling an empty room with virtual ovens, sofas and end tables. Online retailer Wayfair has a similar app, which generally seems to work much better; the dressers and couches and cabinets I’ve dropped into the world around me were faster to load and didn’t randomly appear right on top of me as in the Lowe’s app. In fact, the Wayfair app is a joy to use at least partially because it doesn’t try to do too much — just plop furniture down and that’s it. Same goes for Amazon’s Product Preview app, which lets you see how different TVs would look on your wall. It does one thing, and does it well.
Tango recurring theme #2: When it comes to augmented reality apps, the simpler the better.
Tango’s tools aren’t just about seeing how junk fits in your home, by the way. One of my early favorites is Signal Mapper, which prompts you to wander around and visualize how strong your WiFi signal is (future versions will support cellular networks too). Keep at it long enough and you’re left with a signal strength heat map that doubles as a rough blueprint of… wherever you happened to be. Then there are apps like Cydalion, meant to help the visually impaired get around more easily. In brief, these apps provide audio and touch feedback when they start getting too close to a nearby object.
Tango recurring theme #3: The technology might not be perfect yet, but the potential here is just astounding.
So yes, there are plenty of Tango utilities for you to play with. But let’s be real: The first thing I did after receiving the Phab 2 Pro was load up a handful of games. As it turns out, though, games are where Tango’s shortcomings become most apparent. We’ve seen some of these augmented reality games before, like Domino World, which scans your surroundings and lets you build convoluted structures out of those tiny tiles. But there’s a tendency for the app to think a flat surface like a tabletop goes on longer than it does, so you’ll often build a long string of dominos that jut out the air, just waiting to be knocked over.
Other games, like Woorld, are heavier on the whimsy. Designed in part by Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi, Woorld turns the space around you into a playground where the only real goal is figuring out how to find new pieces — like a sun, clouds, sprouts and picnic tables — to add your tiny domain. It’s cute, it’s fun and I blew the better part of an afternoon on it. Woorld is, by the way, the one game I played that really threw the Phab 2 Pro for a loop. It was the second time I had fired up the game, and less than 10 minutes after I started plopping cottages and clouds and sprouts on a conference room desk, the real-world view provided by the RGB camera nearly ground to a halt.
I’m not exactly sure what caused the issue — maybe a memory leak somewhere — but it hasn’t happened again. Suffice to say, this sort of laggy behavior was an exception, not the rule. I’m actually still surprised that the Phab 2 Pro performed these AR tasks as well as it did, but I probably shouldn’t have been: This phone was supposed to launch at the end of the summer, and it’s clear Google and Lenovo used the extra time to to tighten up
Even so, the software is buggy. Playing Phantogeist, the ghost-blasting game I mentioned in the beginning of this review, was great until said ghost spookily hunkered down inside a wall, rendering my lightning-gun-thing useless. When it wandered back into the field, I nuked it from a distance and continued doing that to all its nasty, non-corporeal friends.
Tango recurring theme #4: When everything works the way it’s supposed to, Tango can feel like magic.
These past two years have turned Tango into a functional product, but it’s a long way from seamlessly good. There were, however, plenty of those moments where everything came together just so and I felt I like I was playing with a tricorder pulled out of storage on the USS Enterprise. Some of these issues will be addressed in future Tango hardware — Google’s Tango program lead Johnny Lee has said more is coming — but here’s hoping software fixes patch up some of these early troubles. The potential benefits are just too great to give up on.
Camera
Since the Phab 2 Pro’s 16-megapixel camera plays such an important role in making Tango’s augmented reality work, you’d think Lenovo would’ve chosen a top-flight sensor. Not quite, but it has its moments. When the conditions are right — by which I mean there’s plenty of light — the camera yields detailed shots with colors that are mostly true to life. Pro tip: You’ll probably want HDR mode on all the time to give your photos a dose of verve that would otherwise be missing.
My biggest gripe so far has been the finicky autofocus, an issue that only gets more bothersome in low light. Our office already has a Christmas tree in the lobby, and it posed no problem for the iPhone 7 Plus or the Galaxy S7. The Phab 2 Pro, on the other hand, refused to lock onto the tree no matter how many times I tapped to focus on the screen. This doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s a pervasive enough issue that Lenovo should really issue a software update to address it.
I wish I could say the 8-megapixel front camera was better, but it has a lot of trouble accurately rendering colors in selfies. Take me, for example: Around this time of year I’m sort of a pale, milky coffee color, an observation backed up by selfies taken with the iPhone 7 Plus and the Galaxy S7. For reasons beyond comprehension, though, the Phab 2 Pro’s front camera made me a deep orange-brown. That’s with the face-smoothing mode off and everything else set to auto too. Seriously disappointing, Lenovo.
The camera app itself isn’t much to write home about, either. Sure, there might not be much in way of manual controls, but there are eight scene modes, a “touchup” mode for cleaning up your face in selfies and some basic white balance and exposure controls. The thing is, they’re tucked away inside a settings menu making them easy to miss. It’s just bad design. (Then again, looking at the interface Lenovo slapped together, is another bit of bad design really a surprise?)
Since the Phab 2 Pro is all about augmenting reality, it’s no shock that there’s an AR mode within the camera app too. Tapping the AR button brings up a live view of what’s in front of you (duh) along with options to turn that space into some sort of bizarre fairy garden (complete with freaky child-fairy) or a playground for a kitty, a puppy or a chubby, oddly designed dragon. Sound familiar? These sorts of AR tricks figured prominently in Sony smartphones like the Xperia X line, where they were just as hokey. They’re good for a chuckle or two, but the novelty doesn’t last long (unless you have kids). At least the Phab 2 Pro does a better job dispelling the heat that tends to build up during intense AR kitty play sessions.
Performance and battery life
We’ve already established that, beyond the occasional hiccup, the Phab 2 Pro can keep Tango apps running at a decent clip. But what about everything else? Even though the Snapdragon 625 is specifically tuned for Tango, the Phab 2 Pro should be able to handle most people’s daily routines without issue. My days, for instance, are filled with lots of frantic app launching and multitasking; I’m constantly bouncing between Slack, Outlook, Spotify, Trello, Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud and more for hours on end.
The Phab 2 Pro took that mild insanity like a champ, with occasional stutters punctuating long stretches of smoothness. Not bad. If your day features a lot of hardcore gaming, however, you might want to look elsewhere. Graphically intense games like Asphalt 8 (with the visual settings cranked to the max) sometimes proved to be a little much for the Phab 2 Pro. In other words, don’t freak out if you see the occasional jerkiness or dropped frame. Though this is an important device, you’re not exactly getting flagship-level power.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
Lenovo Phab 2 Pro
AndEBench Pro
14,941
16,164
13,030
8,930
Vellamo 3.0
5,343
5,800
4,152
4,922
3DMark IS Unlimited
28,645
29,360
26,666
17,711
GFXBench 3.0 1080p Manhattan Offscreen (fps)
46
48
47
14
I was also expecting more from the Phab 2 Pro’s 4,050mAh battery — it’s the biggest I’ve seen in a recent smartphone, after all. The usage time skewed more middle-of-the-road than I expected, but that’s still sort of a win after all the time I’ve spent playing with Tango apps. Since seeing the sun for any appreciable period of time now requires me to be up early, I usually pulled the Phab 2 Pro off its charger at around 6:45AM, then put it through the daily wringer, with lots of time to get acquainted with Tango. I mean, who could resist?
Over the course of a few days like that, the phone settled into a predictable pattern: It’d power through 12-hour workdays just fine with about 10 to 15 percent left in the tank. On weekends where I spent much less time glued to the phone, it generally stuck around for closer to two days on a charge.
Things were a little less promising in Engadget’s standard rundown test, wherein we loop a high-definition video with the phone connected to WiFi and the screen’s brightness fixed at 50 percent. The Phab 2 Pro lasted for 12 hours and 8 minutes — 20 minutes less than the Google Pixel, and a full two hours less than the larger Google Pixel XL. Such is the downside of having to power such a big display.
Wrap-up
The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro is an incredible thing, and it’s just brimming with potential. It’s also unpolished and frustrating to use a lot of the time. When the hardware and software don’t come together as they should, it makes me wish Google and Lenovo spent a little more time ironing out the bugs. But when everything does come together — which happens frequently — I feel like I’m playing with something from the future.
Even so, there’s work to be done. Hardly any of the Tango apps available for the Phab 2 Pro feel like killer apps. As developers continue to get a feel for what Tango is capable of, we’ll see the platform become more useful — at least, I hope so. Part of that growth hinges on people starting to adopt Tango devices like the Phab 2 Pro, but it’s pretty clear that in its current form, no one needs this phone. For all Lenovo’s work cramming Tango into a well-built body, the Phab 2 Pro still feels like a proof of concept. If you’re a developer or an early adopter, then by all means, go get one.
Everyone else should remember that Tango doesn’t end with this phone. It’s special, it’s immersive and I think it could be huge for the future of mobile computing. It just needs time. I’m glad the Phab 2 Pro exists, but if there were ever a phone that wasn’t meant for everyone, this is it. The race is on now, though, and who knows: Maybe the next device with this tech is the one that truly delivers on Tango’s promise
The Wirecutter’s best deals: $100 off the new MacBook Pro
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read their continuously updated list of deals here.
You may have already seen Engadget posting reviews from our friends at The Wirecutter. Now, from time to time, we’ll also be publishing their recommended deals on some of their top picks. Read on, and strike while the iron is hot — some of these sales could expire mighty soon.
Apple non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro 2016
Street price: $1,500; MSRP: $1,500; deal price: $1,400
This is the first deal we’ve seen on the new 13-inch Macbook Pro, and it’s a nice $100 drop from it’s normal price. We haven’t seen any significant deals on any of the new Macbook Pro’s yet, so this deal seems like an early holiday treat. The non-Touch Bar Macbook Pro will be one of our recommended picks in an upcoming update to our Macbook guide.
The 2016 non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro is an upcoming pick in our guide on which Macbook to buy. Dan Frakes wrote, “If you don’t need any legacy ports—or you’re willing to deal with adapters until all your gear is USB-C—the 2016 non-Touch Bar MacBook Pro occupies a nice middle ground between the 12-inch MacBook’s size and weight and the Touch Bar Pro’s performance and connectivity.”
Roku Streaming Stick
Street price: $50; MSRP: $50; deal price: $35
An excellent discount on a media streaming stick that’s already more affordable than our previous picks. We’ve posted it at $40 previously but at $35, this is an excellent deal.
The Roku Streaming Stick is our pick for the best media streamer. Chris Heinonen writes, “The Roku Streaming Stick is the best media streamer for most people because it offers the largest selection of streaming content, a clean and responsive user interface, and a useful search function.” He continues, “The Streaming Stick offers the same interface, speed, and content as the more expensive Roku 2 and 3. It also has a private listening mode so you can watch your content without disturbing others. You also get an RF remote instead of IR, so it doesn’t need to be in sight to work.”
Logitech Logi Circle
Street price: $170; MSRP: $200; deal price: $130
This is the lowest price we’ve seen on this home security cam, beating our previous posted low by $20. It’s available on both the white and black models.
The Logitech Logi Circle is our pick for the best Wi-Fi home security camera. Stewart Wolpin wrote, “Logitech’s Logi Circle sets up more easily and includes more useful features and functions, and fewer annoyances, than any of the cameras we tested. It operates on a battery as well as AC so it can be placed in more locations, offers free 24-hour cloud storage for videos, creates a unique 30-second review of the last 24 hours of footage it’s captured, is more selective in the number of alerts it sends out, and performs better than the competition in dim light.”
Apple iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi 128GB
Street price: $500; MSRP: $500; deal price: $375
This is the best price we’ve seen on on iPad mini 4 to date. This deal price is actually lower than the price we’ve seen for the smaller 64GB mini 4, so it’s a great deal.
The iPad mini 4 is our smaller tablet pick in our Apple tablet guide. Dan Frakes wrote, “The mini 4 is an appealing tablet if you want something smaller. Unlike with previous iPad mini lines, the iPad mini 4 (released in September 2015) has pretty much all of its full-size counterpart’s features and capabilities: the high-quality, anti-glare LED display (just smaller, at 7.9 inches, though with the same 2048×1536 resolution), a similar (but not identical) processor, the same Wi-Fi and LTE networking, the same back camera and camera features, the same M8 motion coprocessor, the same barometer—you name it. The battery life is also the same as that of the Air 2.”
Deals change all the time, and some of these may have expired. To see an updated list of current deals, please go to The Wirecutter.com.
Hermès Boutiques Selling Exclusive Apple Watch Band Starting November 24
Starting on November 24, Hermès boutiques will begin selling an exclusive “Equateur Tattoo” Apple Watch band designed using a jungle print from naturalist artist Robert Dallet, reports Vogue’s French site.
Priced at 419 euros, the band is similar to the Single Tour that Hermés has offered for several months and features the same design that’s been previously used by Hermès on other products. It has a jungle leaf design in black and white, with a colorful cheetah at one side of the band.
Though Apple and Hermès have a partnership that sees Apple selling Apple Watch Hermès models with exclusive Hermès bands, the new Robert Dallet band will not be available in Apple Stores. It will be sold in limited quantities in Hermès locations and is expected to sell out quickly.
Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
Discuss this article in our forums
Verizon Offering iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus for $0 With Eligible Trade-In for Black Friday
Verizon today announced its Black Friday deals, introducing a discount that will give customers a chance to purchase an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus for as little as $0 when trading in an eligible smartphone and selecting a device payment plan.
Verizon customers will be able to get an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus at a reduced cost and with no money down when trading in one of thirteen eligible smartphones. Eligible devices include the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S6 edge, Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S7 edge, Samsung Note5, LG V20, LG G5 and Moto Droid Turbo 2.
Customers who switch to Verizon and purchase a smartphone on a device payment plan will also be able to get a $200 prepaid Visa gift card for up to 4 lines. A family of four that switches to Verizon during Black Friday, for example, will be able to get $800 back while also taking advantage of the trade-in plan.
Verizon’s deals will be available online starting on Thursday, November 24 and in stores starting on Friday, November 25. Discounts will be available through Sunday.
Verizon is also offering discounts on iPads. The 32GB iPad mini 2 can be purchased for $99 with a two-year agreement, and when purchasing an iPhone, customers can get $250 off an iPad.
Other Deals
Valid until Friday:
- UE Boom 2 – $99.99, down from $199.99
- Beats UrBeats earbuds – $49.99, down from $100
- Fitbit Charge 2 – $130, down from $150, also includes $25 mail-in Visa gift card rebate
Valid through Sunday:
- Harmon Kardon Onyx Bluetooth Speaker – $99.99, down from $200
- Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones – $224.99, down from $300
- UE Megaboom Speaker – $229.99, down from $300
- FitBit Charge HR – $89.99, down from $130
- Mophie Powerstation XL – $34.99, down from $70
- Nest Cam – $149.99, down from $200
- Google Home – $99.99, down from $130
For more deals on the iPhone and other Apple products, make sure to check out our full Black Friday roundup.
Related Roundup: Black Friday
Tag: Verizon
Discuss this article in our forums
Spoiler Alert! If you’re using a Note 7 ROM, you’re going to get Note 7 notifications
No, Samsung is not collecting your ROM’d phones.
Samsung’s recall of the Note 7 means two things — lots of people curious about whether their phone might be next, and lots of misinformation about how Samsung is handling the recall. We’ve seen reports claiming Samsung will send kill signals to phones, claims that Samsung has been monitoring existing Note 7 users, and now claims that Samsung is pulling phones running Note 7 software.
The one thing all of these stories have in common is that they aren’t at all true, but that last one is what happens when you don’t fully understand how rooting and romming works.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was running some interesting software that isn’t available to all other Samsung phones. As a result, some of the more clever Samsung users out there have flashed modified versions of the Note 7 software to other phones. Samsung doesn’t know (or care) about the difference between a real Note 7 and a phone running Note 7 software, which means when Samsung pushes a recall notification to all active Note 7 phones reminding them of the need to submit the phone for a recall everything gets it. One of those people, a Redditor with a Note 4 running Note 7 software, got that message and shared it. What happened next on tech blogs eager to write anything new about the Note 7 will surprise no one.
Is this a reason to panic? Of course not. If you are smart enough to root and flash Note 7 software to your Note 4, you’re more than smart enough to know Samsung’s recall notification doesn’t apply to you. Samsung isn’t sending updates to disable your phone, and there is no massive surge in people sending in Samsung phones that aren’t the Note 7 for a recall because they’re running Note 7 software.
If you’d like to explore applying Note 7 software to something that isn’t a Note 7, you should start with our guide to rooting your Android phone and learn from there!
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
- Galaxy Note 7 fires, recall and cancellation: Everything you need to know
- Survey results: Samsung users stay loyal after Note 7 recall
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
- The latest Galaxy Note 7 news
- Join the Note 7 discussion in the forums!
These cases are just $5 for a limited time
Enjoy these deals on cases for the Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 edge, S6 and S6 edge.
Caseology is offering deep discounts on cases for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, along with a bunch of popular Samsung phones — the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge and even a few for the Samsung S6, S6 edge, and S6 edge plus.
Because this is a limited quantity sale, the promo code will expire once the limited quantity has sold out. When going through checkout, make sure you choose Caseology as the seller and not fulfilled by Amazon. It’s the only way to get the promotional codes to work, and also get free shipping.
Google Pixel Case
- Vault Series – Black — $4.99 with coupon code: F5MACLWM
- Parallax Series – Black — $4.99 with coupon code: NIH6KWJC
- Waterfall Series – Clear — $4.99 with coupon code: ZVKMY6LA
Google Pixel XL Case
- Vault Series – Black — $4.99 with coupon code: ZTUVER3I
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Galaxy S7 Case
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- Vault Series – Rose Gold — $4.99 with coupon code: 6VINASUE
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Galaxy S7 Edge Case
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- Envoy Series – Carbon Fiber Black — $4.99 with coupon code: GHQUMY2P
- Wavelength Series – Mint Green — $4.99 with coupon code: BK7IOP27
- Skyfall Series – Gold — $4.99 with coupon code: YX6DM9QS
Galaxy S6 Case
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Galaxy S6 Edge Case
- Wavelength Series – Navy Blue — $4.99 with coupon code: 4EDDT67A
Galaxy S6 Edge Plus Case
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- Envoy Series – Carbon Fiber Black — $4.99 with coupon code: AY6MLVQR
With its recent update, the Pixel is now almost perfect
A small update makes a big difference.
A lot of people were very upset by a fairly big omission in the Pixel’s Android 7.1-based Nougat software when it first came out: the fact that, unlike the Nexus 6P, the phone’s useful ambient display didn’t magically appear whenever the phone was picked up. It seemed like a strange thing to leave out given the phone’s lineage, but I am happy to say that with build NPF26J, first released to Canadians earlier this week, the functionality has returned, along with the ability to double-tap to turn on the screen.
These features are part of Google’s growing Moves gesture menu, which is currently exclusive to the Pixel and includes the ability to swipe the rear fingerprint sensor to access notifications, or double-press the power button to open the camera. None of these are new to the Android world, nor particularly novel, but they are important to the core functionality of the phone. Indeed, until yesterday, I felt very frustrated by what I felt was a significant drawback to an otherwise-fantastic phone.
“Double-tap to check phone” and “Lift to check phone” are common in many other Android phones, from Motorola to HTC to Samsung. They are examples of the conveniences we expect from modern flagships, and are sorely missed when they’re not included in new phones we regularly test. The interaction model is obvious, which is why such features have become so popular: the phone vibrates to indicate a notification, and the ambient screen pulses. But if you’re not around to see that initial pulse, you still want to check what happened, so you pick up the phone or take it out of your pocket — and for the last month, on the Pixel, nothing happened. The cycle was broken; the magic was lost.
Many Pixel owners I spoke to about this had the same feelings, that something felt broken with the device.
Even double-tapping to engage the screen, something I take for granted on almost every phone I buy, was not included. Many Pixel owners I spoke to about this had the same feelings, that something felt broken with the device. Thankfully, with the most recent update, all is well again.
The update also reportedly fixes most LTE connectivity problems associated with the Pixel, which is perhaps why it rolled out to Canadian devices before the rest of the world. While I haven’t experienced the problem, I am happy to report that we’ve heard of a number of people whose connectivity issues have been cleared up, though customers on South American carriers who sideloaded the update are still reporting problems.
It’s been an interesting month or so since the Pixel’s release — the phone has become so divisive within the Android community. Some, like many of us, believe it to be the best Android phone currently available. Others dismiss its utilitarian design, lack of waterproofing and expandable storage, and its high price, as reasons to avoid it. That’s fine; there are plenty other Android fish in the sea.
But with this update, the Pixel is now almost perfect for me — no phone is perfect — and reinforces my belief that it is the best Android phone you can buy right now.
Google Pixel + Pixel XL
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL review
- Google Pixel XL review: A U.S. perspective
- Google Pixel FAQ: Should you upgrade?
- Pixel + Pixel XL specs
- Understanding Android 7.1 Nougat
- Join the discussion in the forums!
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Put some island beauty on your desktop with these Moana wallpapers
Get the island vibe with these Moana-themed wallpapers!
Moana came out today in the U.S., and if there’s anything I want to do more than sit around a table filled with stuffed birds and mediocre sides, it’s go to the movies. Moana couldn’t have shown up at a better time, and to celebrate, we’ve got some wallpapers of our new favorite Disney heroine.
Yeah, I wish this movie were cel animation, too. If the movie looked like this, I might actually go watch it on repeat. Look at those lines, look at the soft focus, look at that color! Oh, just let the waves crash over me…
Disney’s Moana by MarioOscarGabriele
Sunsets are pretty amazing wherever they happen, but there’s a magic all its own when sunsets happen at sea. This island sunset is just stunning, a flourish of color and shadow to brighten up your phone in even the grayest winter days. The lighting work ryky puts into their work is amazing, and while this image is a bit small, I had no qualms rocking this wallpaper and feeling that light and color energize me each time I unlocked my phone.
MOANA by ryky
The light colors, the soft lines, the warmth that pervades the piece, it just fills the soul and carries it across the waves. Prince Kido is one of my favorite artists on DeviantArt, and there’s a very good reason: his work is amazing. He’s animated books for Disney before, his gallery is nothing short of amazing, and his original comic Bichon is an adorable work that has a wonderful take on gender roles and self-discovery. Definitely check his work out once you’ve downloaded this wallpaper.
Fanart de Moana by princekido
I think we’re all a little jealous of the connection Moana shares with the sea. Who wouldn’t want two-thirds of the planet’s surface as your friend?! Especially when it can sass demigods and show the way with bioluminescence! This wallpaper highlights that spirit of friendship as Moana offers a beautiful flower to the ocean that protects and guides her.
Moana by snownymphs
This was one of the earliest glimpses we had into Moana, and it remains a breathtaking piece showcasing how wide and wonderful Moana’s world can be, with them sailing towards these picturesque (and seemingly massive) islands. The detailing in this sweeping shot is incredible, and it can add a little wonder to your home screen each time you come back to it. What’s on those islands? How far will we go?
Moana Concept Art
AIVAnet 