Master Python with this in-depth training bundle, now over 90% off
Just about everything relies on some type of code nowadays. Cars are computerized; we use computers all day long; and we’re glued to our smartphones from sunup to sundown. Python is a major coding language for apps and it’s an excellent tool if you’re wanting to enter the field of software development, especially if you want to build apps for a living.
But you can’t just learn to code with Python over night. You need training, and Python may not be offered at your college of choice. Or, you already have a full-time job and don’t have the time to attend classes, day or night. You need online courses and you need to be able to take them at your leisure — even if that means it takes a couple years.
The Python Power Coder Bonus Bundle is a great way for you to get started and to learn to build apps from scratch and learn web programming, as well as other applicable skills that you can use to forge your career as an app developer or programmer. You’ll get lifetime access to eight courses, totalling roughly 70 hours of content, and you’ll build 17 apps during your studies.
Were you to go anywhere else for these courses, you’d end up paying $1075. But right now through Android Central Digital Offers, you’ll only pay $44 for the whole bundle. That’s eight courses, over 600 lessons, and about 70 hours of content for over 95% off.
It’s a great time to get into the world of app development and programming for the web, but you first need the tools to get a foot in the door. Python is one of the biggest coding languages when it comes to apps and learning to use it and use it well is an invaluable asset right now. But don’t pay over $1000 for courses. Get the Python Power Coder Bonus Bundle for only $44 through Android Central Digital Offers.
See at Android Central Digital Offers
Best Tech Gifts for Kids 2016
Buying for kids isn’t easy, but this is a good place to start!
No two kids are alike, but chances are if they know you there’s a tech streak in there somewhere that will let you appreciate gadgets together. Sometimes that means playing a game together on your favorite console, and sometimes that means running around outside while a 360-degree camera grabs your failed cartwheel at just the right angle. Yeah, that one’s going on YouTube.
What about gear that’s just for the kids, though? Stuff that will not only be fun for them to use, but in some small way actually be good for them? That’s where this gift guide can lend a helping hand. You’ll find everything you could possibly want to gift that will make kids smile and think at the same time. Enjoy!
Anki Cozmo
Everyone has had a toy that felt like your best friend, but Cozmo is the closest thing to a toy that actually tries to fit that description. It’s a small robot with an adaptive AI baked in that learns from playing games with you. Those learning sessions causes it to slowly build a personality based on your interactions with it, eventually creating a personalized Cozmo that both tries to outsmart you in a match four game and come to your side when you need a friend.
The only downside to Cozmo is that it requires a smartphone with the app in order to do all of the thinking and learning, so if your kid doesn’t have one of those you’ll need to be nearby during Cozmo playtime.
See on Amazon
Maybe a Smartphone?
Deciding to equip a kid with a smartphone is no small thing, and that decision has requirements that vary wildly from parent to parent. It doesn’t matter if your kid comes home and says they’re the only one in the class who doesn’t have a phone or that they’re the first, the choice is yours and there are some great options for younger users. We’ve assembled the perfect list of the best smartphones for kids, so you can make the most informed decision possible!
The Best Android phone for kids
littleBits: Rule Your Room Kit
Every parent wants to see their kid be a creator, and there’s never been more tech options available to help make that possible. Free programming apps are all over the place, digital drawing has never been more accessible, and then there’s littleBits. These are kits for the little engineer in your life, giving them the tools to build everything from simple alarm clocks to a pressure sensitive switch for whatever they can think of.
The Rule Your Room Kit comes with step-by-step instructions and all of the materials for eight different inventions, as well as access to a community of builders that have used this same kit to build a lot more.
See at Amazon
The Starter Smartwatch
Kids tend to emulate the adults in their lives, and if you’re walking around all day with a computer on your wrist there’s a good chance your kid wants one to be just like you. That’s not always a good idea, especially if your watch is one of the pricier Android Wear offerings, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t options out there built for kids to fill the need. Whether your kid has a smartphone already or just wants something colorful to be like you, there are some great smartwatches out there for kids. Here’s our take on the best available today!
The Best smartwatch for kids
Code-A-Pillar
There’s no such thing as being too young to enjoy a good gadget, and there’s no such thing as being too young to learn how you think about programming. The Fisher-Price Code-A-Pillar is proof of both of these statements, and it’s pretty great. The little wiggle worm “learns” the pattern you put in its back, and travels based on those instructions. This teaches kids how to think about step-by-step instruction assembly, which can be very helpful later on in life.
The standard Code-A-Pillar can be upgraded with expansion modules that add new instructions, so even if your kid quickly masters this critter there are ways to keep things fun and continue the education!
See on Amazon
View-Master Deluxe VR Viewer
Generally speaking, kids under 13 should be careful to not spend more than an hour in VR at any given time. That being said, there are some incredible VR experiences that you can manage by making them only available when you put your phone inside of their special headset. Mattel’s futuristic View-Master Deluxe is where you start, and everyone who uses it is going to fall in love.
This VR viewer comes with a couple of special educational discs for View-Master field trips to different locations all over the world, but it’s also a Google Cardboard viewer. That means you can watch 360-degree videos on YouTube, play VR games from the Google Play Store, and in this improved model connect whatever headphones you want for a more complete experience.
See at Amazon
Nintendo games consoles from 1980 to now: Which is your favourite?
Nintendo will launch the Switch games console at the beginning of spring 2017, reportedly on 17 March, 32 years after it introduced its first home games console, the Nintendo Entertainment System.
It is also about to release a mini version of the latter machine, pre-installed with 30 of its most loved games, essentially reminding people of the company’s humble beginnings.
However, the NES wasn’t Nintendo’s first consumer games machine, that accolade belongs to the handheld series Game & Watch, although it has come on leaps and bounds since then. Literally, in Mario’s case.
Game & Watch was a series of handhelds that only played a single game, and had either a clock, an alarm or in some cases, both. There were no cartridges or other games to download. Indeed, there was no internet to download them from. You bought a single game and stuck to it.
In the following years, Nintendo carved a niche for itself by being the quirky console manufacturer. Compared to the likes of Sony, Sega and Microsoft, it always took gaming in an odd but satisfying direction. And because of that that it became a company you can’t help but love.
We’ve taken a look back at Nintendo’s illustrious history, which has provided us with some of the most iconic games consoles and not to mention some of the greatest games franchises of all time.
Just have a flick through the gallery above to see all of the machines we have such fond memories for.
- Nintendo Switch: Release date, specs and everything you need to know
Amazon Echo review: It’s all about Alexa
Amazon launched the Echo – its cylindrical, internet-connected Bluetooth-capable speaker – in the US back in 2015. Just over a year later and the Echo has finally made its way to the UK. Hurrah.
But we’re not most excited about the actual speaker part. The biggest take-away from Echo is Alexa, your personal, voice-controlled, cloud-based assistant. Because you’ve always wanted to talk to a home speaker, right?
Impressed by the idea? After spending many weeks playing with Echo – or, should we say, talking to Alexa – we’ve found ourselves liking the assistant feature heaps. The speaker’s not too bad either – or you can buy a smaller, cheaper Echo Dot and sync your own speaker instead for better quality.
- Amazon Echo vs Amazon Tap vs Amazon Echo Dot: What’s the difference?
Here’s why Amazon is at the helm of the smart home with Echo. Sure, it’s cleverly locking you into its wider Prime ecosystem, but Alexa adds additional value to that prospect.
Amazon Echo review: Setup
Amazon Echo is as easy to setup as it gets. The product took us less than a minute to fire up.
- Amazon Echo: The first seven things you should do to get Alexa started
We plugged it into a wall outlet using the included power adapter, then waited for the spinning light ring on top to go from blue to orange. Once that was done, Alexa greeted us.
Pocket-lint
The Echo app exists for iOS, Android and Amazon Fire devices and you’ll need to download that before you can use Echo. Like setting up the speaker itself, this process is a breeze too – you just need to sync with a Wi-Fi network.
When using the Echo app for the first time, sign into your Amazon Prime account and other available services, such as Spotify, so that Echo can work with these various accounts. Plenty of other Amazon services are available, as are those form third parties (we go into more detail via the link below).
- Amazon Echo: What can Alexa do and what services are compatible?
Amazon Echo review: Design
Simply put: Amazon Echo is a Pringles-can-sized speaker. It’s just 235mm tall and just over 76mm around. We were fairly surprised by the compact size of Echo given how the press images somehow made it appear like a large tower of sorts.
Pocket-lint
Which is great, as this is a speaker you can fit anywhere in your home. And because it weighs around 700g, you don’t have to worry about it being easily knocked over by small children or animals. It’s a solid, weighty thing that squeezes into a range of spaces – whether that be a table top, kitchen counter or nestled by your living room’s entertainment centre.
You only need to make sure Echo has access to a mains power outlet. Unlike most Bluetooth speakers at this price point, Echo isn’t portable because there’s no battery on board. It must be plugged in at all times, but that’s kind of a good thing because then you know for sure that it’s always on, always listening, and always ready to provide quick answers and information. Echo isn’t a conventional speaker like the portable Bluetooth competition.
Control wise, Echo has three buttons. Well, two, plus a control ring around the top to control volume. Above this ring is a separate light circle that glows a dull white when you dial the volume ring, or it’ll shine a brilliant blue when you say “Alexa”, which is the personal assistant’s name and wake-up word. Kind of like Siri, Cortana or Google Now. You can ditch the Alexa name and use a variety of others if you prefer, but you can’t programme your own specific (we can see it now: all the swear word choices).
Pocket-lint
As cylindrical speakers go, Alexa is simple and elegant looking.
Amazon Echo review: Alexa voice control
As with all Amazon products, there’s a tie-in with the company’s shopping and pay-for services – aka £79/year Amazon Prime. And with Echo you’ll want a subscription to get the most out of the product. Although you don’t have to sign up. Alexa can still control your heating (if you have Hive) and play music from your phone or laptop without the added subscription.
You can use the Echo app to manage your settings, to-do list, shopping list, connected services, music, and provide an overview of all your requests. That’s right: every query is stored on the History screen with a brief audio clip of what you said. It’s almost creepy.
Pocket-lint
You can ask Alexa to play Audible audiobooks, check your schedule in Google calendar, re-order Prime products in your Amazon history, fetch traffic reports, news, sports scores, weather, get information from Wikipedia, set alarms and timers, and organise shopping lists and to-do lists. Indeed there are heaps of apps beyond that, from Uber to Skyscanner and more.
- Amazon Echo’s Alexa: What services are compatible?
One limitation is that, apart from the weather and dictionary, Alexa strictly pulls informational data from Wikipedia and a few other data repositories. You cannot use Alexa to Google things, though she will send a Bing link to your phone or device if unsuccessful at finding what you want.
What we especially like is that you can ask Alexa almost any question in conversation. And it’s oh so easy to get side-tracked
“Alexa, who is the mayor of London?”
“The mayor of London is Sadiq Khan.”
Cool. What next? Oh, “Alexa, add bin bags to my shopping list.”
“I’ve added bin bags to your shopping list.”
Job done.
One more thing: “Alexa, play some Bob Marley.”
Pocket-lint
The Echo has seven microphones and a “beam-forming” technology, meaning it’s designed to hear you from across the room even while music is playing. That’s not just words straight from an Amazon rep – it’s the truth. Even with Bob blaring out loudly, Alexa could pick up whatever we had to say.
We’ve also used Alexa for shopping a lot – influenced by all that reggae – which is probably the key reason why Amazon developed Echo in the first instance. Ask Alexa to add anything to your shopping list and she’ll do it. If you want to re-order something you’ve already purchased via Prime, you can do so with just your voice. It’s all so futuristic, albeit in the here and now.
Amazon Echo review: Music and speaker quality
Other than that, Alexa is your personal DJ. We love asking her to play any random song, album, genre, station, or artist on demand. If she can’t automatically pull it from a connected service, then she will either play a sample, and then allow us buy said music (via Amazon, of course), or she apologises for not having it.
Echo is a typical Bluetooth speaker, in the sense you can connect your phone or smart device and play tunes wirelessly. So if you have a specific song, mix, or something that you can’t source from streaming services then it can function that way.
By default the Alexa voice-controlled feature only works for Amazon Music/Prime. You can also set, say, Spotify or Tunein within the app if this is your preference. In the US Pandora and iHeartRadio are also available.
Pocket-lint
If you want the music to stop, pause, or the volume to change you simply have to ask Alexa – although the physical buttons can be used instead.
Thing is, the quality of the Echo speaker itself isn’t class-leading. Alexa sounds great, but music doesn’t have as much pop as you might have heard elsewhere. It’s good enough, but it’s just not going to give you the warbling bass that you might find from some other Bluetooth speakers on the market.
Verdict
We think hands-free voice control is a godsend and that Alexa, Amazon Echo’s personal assistant, truly distinguishes this Bluetooth speaker from the competition. It’s blown our minds – whether for listening to music, adding to our shopping list, adjusting the heating or asking other apps to do their thing.
It’s just a shame that, as a Bluetooth speaker, Echo doesn’t quite blow our minds. It’s not a class-leading Bluetooth speaker, despite its so-called “immersive, 360-degree sound”. There’s no on-board battery either, so it always needs to be wired to a wall socket. However, if you want to use your own speakers then you’ll want to buy the Echo Dot, which is smaller and cheaper at £49 – effectively acting an Alexa module, if you will.
Overall we can see where Amazon is going with Echo. It’s all about motivating Amazon Prime and working as the hub of the home. It’ll get more advanced over time as more services become available too. But there will also be more competition: Google Home is incoming (but sounds a lot less human), while surely Apple is only around the corner with a similar such setup.
As it stands, though, Amazon rules the roost. We love Alexa. And we think she loves us back.
Windows Store ‘CoD’ buyers can’t play with Steam friends
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered have come to the Windows 10 Store, but you may want to think twice about buying the games there. According to Activision, those versions don’t support console cross-play, and won’t even work with versions on other PC platforms like Steam. In other words, you’ll only be able to play with other Windows 10 Store buyers and not the millions of players who bought the game elsewhere. They aren’t part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program either, meaning you’ll be stuck with the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) version on Windows 10.
Developers like Epic have complained about the closed nature of the Windows 10 Store, but the Call of Duty restrictions apparently aren’t Microsoft’s fault. Windows Central reports that the decision to separate the UWP game from other Windows platform players was made entirely by Activision. Microsoft affirmed that it supports device and platform cross-play “for partners who want to enable it.”
Though the lack of cross-play is Activision’s decision, users have complained about other aspects of UWP games, like the lack of multi GPU support for SLI or Crossfire, and no support for unlocked frame rates. However, Microsoft recently unlocked frame rates for UWP games and launched MultiGPU support for DirectX 12 games like Rise of the Tomb Raider. It’ll have to do more to open up the platform, though — if buyers see nothing but downsides, they’ll simply buy elsewhere.
Via: Windows Central
Source: Activision
LEGO Dimensions makes me like things I hate
2016 has been a rough year for Ghostbusters fans. After more than a decade of rumors and false starts, the franchise finally got a new film — but the reboot’s cast of leading ladies turned a spotlight on a misogynistic minority within the fandom’s community of cosplayers and prop-builders. When the dust settled, we were left with a movie too mediocre to extinguish the hate surrounding it, yet not nearly bad enough to warrant the outrage. For me, this became a personal problem: How was I to reconcile a lackluster film that I just didn’t like with my weirdly fervent love of Ghostbusters? The answer, it turns out, was LEGO Dimensions.
This isn’t the first time LEGO bricks have served as a bridge between my fandom and a franchise I love. In 2005, Star Wars was in the midst of an awkward phase better known as “the prequels” — a second trilogy that took the space opera into a universe of stiff acting, bad writing and failed expectations. I was slowly growing to hate Star Wars. Then, just a month before Revenge of the Sith hit theaters, I played the LEGO Star Wars video game — a retelling of George Lucas’ second saga in simulated plastic. Somehow, the simplified medium of a toy-themed video game salvaged the prequel trilogy. As I came to terms with my feelings about the new Ghostbusters film, I remembered LEGO Star Wars. The movie may not have been for me, I thought, but maybe the game would be.
As with the Star Wars prequels, the new Ghostbusters film looked like the franchise I knew and loved, but its change in tone didn’t quite tickle my nostalgia. I loved seeing a new take on the Ghostbusters’ classic car and watching the team take down spirits with unlicensed nuclear accelerators, but I was turned off by the movie’s humor: fart jokes, slapstick antics and forced awkwardness just don’t make me laugh.
The LEGO Dimensions Ghostbusters Story Pack softens the tone, excising the cringeworthy comedy and bodily function jokes while still holding on to the essence of the story and its characters. It almost took itself more seriously too — spending more time on the narrative and less time as an extended Saturday Night Live sketch. Maybe it’s just the familiarity of the LEGO trappings, but Dimensions seems to capture the spirit of the original franchise better than the new film without compromising integrity of the rebooted story or characters.
As great as LEGO’s adaptation of Ghostbusters is, the gameplay itself is a little bland. It’s not bad, per se, but it’s still a LEGO game, and those don’t change much. It’s a double-edged sword, really: The series’ history of casual platforming, simple puzzles and straightforward combat mechanics has always offered a fun and consistent, but ultimately unchallenging experience. On the other hand, those follies are exactly why these games work so well with licensed properties. Like the toys they’re based on, LEGO games are designed to fit any mold imaginable. It works too: LEGO has adapted Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, Adventure Time, Doctor Who and even the original 1984 Ghostbusters — and all of them are fun, nostalgic experiences. Maybe that’s why it’s the last licensed toys-to-life platform still standing.
Fandom can be a weird thing. It inspires some to build screen-accurate props. For others, it justifies hostile, misogynistic trolling, apparently. It turned me into a man looking back on a childhood toy as a possible conduit for enjoying something that I didn’t like, but wanted to. Against all odds, it actually worked. LEGO Dimensions helped me salvage my fandom for a Ghostbusters reboot I initially hated. It let me make connections to characters I found grating and bland on-screen. It’s neither the best Ghostbusters game ever made (that title goes to the 2009 game written and voiced by the 1984 film’s stars) nor is it the best depiction of the original characters (hello there, IDW comic book series). But for me, Dimensions is the best way to experience the 2016 reboot.
Apple is close to launching single sign-on for Apple TV
Apple wants to take the pain out of turning your Apple TV into a cable box, and is doing so with Single Sign On. It’s a system that promises to let you enter the username you use with your TV provider just once, and it’ll collate whatever apps and services you can access automatically. It was announced all the way back in June, but only now is the company ready to begin testing the feature publicly.
Both AppleInsider and 9to5Mac are reporting that Single Sign-on has been activated for beta testers using iOS 10.2 and tvOS 10.1. If you’re using those operating systems on the Apple TV, iPhone or iPad, you can head over to the settings pane and enter your provider details to get going. For now, the number of companies listed is limited to four: Dish, GTVC Communications, Hotwire and Sling TV. But now that Apple is letting folks in the real world kick the tires, hopefully it won’t be long before we all get to play.
Source: AppleInsider, 9to5Mac
The best 4K monitors
By David Murphy
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 its work. Read the full article here.
After spending 37 hours researching 22 4K monitors and testing eight finalists, we’ve found that the Dell P2715Q is the best 4K monitor for most people right now. Recent improvements in technology and drops in pricing make a 4K monitor a good buy if you’re willing to live with some quirks, but it still isn’t something most people need. If you work with (or watch) a lot of high-definition content, have an amazing gaming computer, or just want more desktop space, you’ll be happy with the Dell, or any of our other picks.
Who this is for
Illustration: Elizabeth Brown
The most obvious reason to choose a 4K monitor is because it has a lot of pixels. With 3840×2160 pixels, a 4K monitor has four times as many as a 1920×1080 monitor (8.29 million versus 2.07 million), 3.6 times the pixels of a 1920×1200 monitor (such as our 24-inch monitor pick), and 2.25 times the pixels of a 2560×1440 monitor (likeour 27-inch monitor pick).
A high-resolution display such as a 4K monitor can make text and images look much sharper than a standard monitor. Photo: David Murphy
That increased pixel density produces sharper, more detailed images, as you’ll see in our illustration above. A 4K monitor can give you a better-looking picture for games, the ability to edit high-res photos and videos at their native resolutions, and a lot more desktop space—useful if you’re a coder or you otherwise need a large amount of information on one screen.
Higher picture quality and more screen space can make 4K monitors look like an obvious upgrade, but they come with potential drawbacks that some people will find annoying and others will hate. To learn more, check out our full guide.
How we picked and tested
Photo: David Murphy
We narrowed our list of the best-reviewed and highly ranked IPS monitors down to eight by eliminating those that weren’t manufacturer-calibrated, were way too expensive for their specifications, or were using DisplayPort’s multi-stream transport mode (MST) instead of single-stream transport (SST). MST was an older stopgap measure that treated a monitor as two separate displays in order to get a 4K picture working over older versions of DisplayPort. You should avoid any monitor that isn’t SST, though you might have to do some Internet detective work to confirm whether a monitor uses it.
The Wirecutter’s Chris Heinonen helped us design our monitor-testing process, which relies on two measuring devices: a $1,200 i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer from X-Rite and a $170 Spyder4Pro. (The Spyder4Pro is better at reading black levels than the i1Pro.) We built customized tests in the CalMAN 2016 software-calibration suite to measure each monitor’s maximum and minimum brightness levels, gamma, color temperature, and color accuracy.
Our pick
The P2715Q has an old-school fat plastic bezel and traditional plastic buttons rather than the ultraslim bezel and capacitive buttons of Dell’s UltraSharp line. Photo: David Murphy
The Dell P2715Q is the best 4K monitor for most people because its display quality is exceptional, its price is reasonable, it has all the connections you’ll need for your PC (and USB devices); it comes with a highly adjustable ergonomic stand and VESA mounting holes; and it uses single-stream transport for its DisplayPort connection—much better than cheaper (or older) multi-stream transport monitors.
The P2715Q doesn’t carry Dell’s UltraSharp branding, but the company calibrates the monitor at the factory. Because the calibration applies to the monitor’s default mode, you’ll get great results when you first set up the monitor. (You should still optimize the monitor’s brightness and contrast for your room’s lighting.)
The monitor’s DeltaE values—representing how far away a displayed color is from what it should actually be—ranged from 1.114 on our saturations test to 1.224 on our ColorChecker test to 1.493 on our grayscale test. In real-world terms, the P2715Q’s colors are almost perfect. Though the calibration software found that some displayed reds appeared oversaturated and the monitor had some hue/tint inaccuracies, they’re not perceptible. For more on grayscales and color temperature, see our full guide.
There’s little we don’t like about Dell’s P2715Q. Previous purchasers have reported that the monitor doesn’t always work, or work well, with various MacBooks. Given how many different kinds of MacBooks exist, how many different ways people have tried to connect the monitor to their laptops, and how many different versions of MacOS people are using, we haven’t found a one-size-fits-all solution for some of the reported issues, so we recommend checking to confirm that your MacBook can even run 4K at 60 Hz.
Runner-up (with extra features for gamers)
The XG2700-4K is an excellent alternative to the Dell P2715Q. Photo: David Murphy
The ViewSonic XG2700-4K isn’t just a runner-up; it’s an excellent alternative to the Dell P2715Q if you’re a gamer or a power user and you like digging into your monitor’s features. It offers accurate colors, excellent stand adjustability, an even better array of connections, and FreeSync (for AMD gamers). It also has far more configuration options than the Dell, though they’re not explained very well, which is our biggest complaint with this monitor. But the Dell P2715Q is a lot more user-friendly (and currently cheaper), which is why that model gets our recommendation.
In our CalMAN 2016 testing, the XG2700-4K had a slightly better grayscale DeltaE than the Dell P2715Q (0.9428 versus 1.493). The same held true for our saturations test (0.5073 versus 1.078) and our ColorChecker test (0.7491 versus 1.224). In reality, all of those values indicate excellent display quality for most people—you can’t tell whether one monitor is more accurate than the other without a calibration device.
We especially love the XG2700-4K’s robust multipicture mode, which lets you use one monitor to view multiple connected sources at once (either in a split screen, a quad-window display, or picture-in-picture).
Upgrade pick
The BenQ BL3201PH is gigantic, but it lets you avoid dealing with unpredictable scaling issues if you rely on third-party apps. Photo: David Murphy
The BenQ BL3201PH is a beast. It’s the best 4K monitor you can buy if you have room on your desk for its 32-inch screen. The biggest benefit of a giant 4K monitor is that you might not need to scale your display when running the monitor at its native resolution. That way, you’ll avoid one of the main issues plaguing 4K—third-party apps that look ugly, blurry, or too tiny to use when Windows embiggens your on-screen items.
Of all the large 4K monitors we looked at, the BL3201PH offers the best combination of price and performance, plenty of connectivity, all the right ergonomic adjustments, and a good assortment of features in an easy-to-navigate configuration screen.
Care and maintenance
Dell’s factory calibration for the P2715Q’s Standard mode is very accurate, so you don’t need to buy a hardware colorimeter to calibrate your display unless you need absolute perfection (as professional photographers, graphic designers, or video editors do). You can (and should) adjust the monitor’s contrast: Go to Lagom.nl’s white-saturation test and set your contrast at the highest it will go before you can’t see the difference between the higher-numbered values and the all-white background.
If your monitor’s screen gets dirty or smudgy, don’t use an ammonia- or alcohol-based cleaner on it (no Windex). Don’t use a paper towel, either. A microfiber cloth and some distilled water (not tap) will work just fine. And don’t spray the screen when cleaning it—spray the cloth, then wipe the screen.
This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.
Note from The Wirecutter: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.
Neil Young’s Catalog Returns to Apple Music After He Said Streaming Has ‘Worst Quality in History’
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer Neil Young’s full back catalog has returned to Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, and elsewhere, less than two years after he pulled his collection from all streaming services due to his belief that streaming delivers the “worst quality in history,” according to Music Ally.
Young stopped streaming his songs in July 2015, and at the time said “it’s not because of the money” but rather “about sound quality” in a Facebook post.
Streaming has ended for me. I hope this is ok for my fans.
It’s not because of the money, although my share (like all the other artists) was dramatically reduced by bad deals made without my consent.
It’s about sound quality. I don’t need my music to be devalued by the worst quality in the history of broadcasting or any other form of distribution. I don’t feel right allowing this to be sold to my fans. It’s bad for my music.
For me, it’s about making and distributing music people can really hear and feel. I stand for that.
When the quality is back, I’ll give it another look. Never say never.
Young’s catalog first returned to streaming service Tidal’s high-fidelity CD quality tier in April, although his songs were also made available through its standard tier with a max quality of 320 kbps. Apple Music has a max quality of 256kbps. Both services use the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) encoding format.
Young himself launched Pono, a music download service with high-resolution audio, in early 2015. The digital music service delivers high-resolution 24-bit 192 kHz audio. However, the store has been temporarily offline since July after its primary cloud-based infrastructure partner Omnifone was acquired.
Young has yet to provide a reason behind his decision to bring his catalog back to additional streaming services.
Tag: Apple Music
Discuss this article in our forums
Indian Government Purchasing Cellebrite Technology Used to Bypass Locked iPhones
India’s Forensic Science Laboratory is in negotiations to purchase the security bypassing technology used by Israeli mobile software developer Cellebrite, the company that the FBI enlisted to help unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter earlier in the year (via The Economic Times).
The FBI needed Cellebrite’s “mobile forensics solutions” to bypass the lock on the iPhone 5c in question, a method which Apple vehemently opposed throughout the lengthy public spat between it and the U.S. Justice Department.
Cellebrite has worked with government and law enforcement agencies “around the world,” and the FBI’s interaction with the company was reported earlier in the year to cost somewhere around $1 million. The terms of India’s purchasing agreement with Cellebrite were not laid out, but an anonymous official from the Forensic Science Laboratory said that the Indian government is expected to get the unlocking technology fairly soon.
“We are likely to have the technology within a month or so. India will become a global hub for cases where law enforcement is unable to break into phones,” said a senior FSL official. All officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.
As the FSL official mentioned, after its purchase of Cellebrite India intends to become the “global hub” for cases similar to the one between Apple and the FBI that occurred this year, since it will now own the “entire tool” to open encrypted smartphones. It’s mentioned, although not in much detail, that requests the FSL receives by other institutes to unlock a smartphone “will be entertained at a fee.”
It’s not clear how India’s purchase will be different from anyone else’s, or what would lead the country to become a “global hub” when others can also seek out help from Cellebrite.
Despite the FBI eventually finding nothing of importance in the San Bernardino iPhone, the political and technological climate surrounding the case will continue because encryption is “essential tradecraft” of terrorists, according to FBI director James Comey. His prediction came true last month when the agency began looking into the “legal and technical options” for entering the iPhone of the culprit behind the Minnesota mall stabbings in mid-September.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Tags: India, Apple-FBI
Discuss this article in our forums
AIVAnet 