Arcano Systems’ chiptune synth offers 80s video game nostalgia
Here at Engadget, we have quite an affinity for all things that remind us of what it was like to play video games in the 80s. That includes musical instruments and gear that are capable of reproducing those iconic chiptune sounds we all know and love. Arcano Systems is no stranger to those tones and the company has taken to Kickstarter to fund yet another of its creations. The company has a knack for creating the 8-bit chiptune synths, including last year’s NES Chiptune Synthesizer. This time around, it created the Obscura 8-bit Chiptune Synth 2: a MIDI synthesizer that emulates the sounds of games from Nintendo NES, Famicom and Commodore 64.
For this new version, Arcano Systems gave the monophonic synthesizer more waveforms, more patches, an improved volume envelope system, increased vibrato depth and faster arpeggio frequency. There are two versions of the gadget with one being surface-mounted (SMD) like the original while the other has a through-hole construction. The latter option is smaller, more like the NES chiptune synth that was released last year. You’ll need a MIDI controller to get these up and running, but once you have that, these devices don’t require any other programming or additional software to start the 8-bit sounds.
Still unsure about committing funds? Take a look at some demo footage below. The company already has a handful of devices ready for early backers and plans to ship to its other supporters in October.
Via: Fact Magazine
Source: Kickstarter
Researchers are developing a soft, stretchy touch screen panel
Gaming with mice and keyboard or controller is one thing, but what about using a soft, stretchy touch panel? Wouldn’t that look and feel pretty bizarre?
Researchers have been hard at work on developing a special, highly stretchable touchpad that can be utilized to play games and write words. It’s very impressive, made of hydrogel and a network of hydrophilic polymers that allow the panel to stretch beyond normal limits. This was achieved using a polyacrylamide hydrogel with lithium chloride salts that help the hydrogel retain water.
During tests, the touchpad was able to operate normally when stretched to more than 1000% its normal area, though after 100 cycles resistance was increased only slightly. This is an extremely impressive breakthrough, and the applications are obvious, especially when it comes to medical devices and even improving portable gameplay in the future.
You can see the device in action here.
Via: Phys.org
Deep Space Industries plans to land on an asteroid by 2020
This week, asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries announced detailed plans to launch the first private mission to an asteroid by 2020. The California-based company plans to build a successor to its Prospector-X test craft called Prospector–1, which will land directly on an asteroid as it passes near Earth. Although Prospector–1 won’t be bringing back any gold or platinum, the historic mission will map the surface of the asteroid and analyze the rock for resources that could be useful in DSI’s long-term plans.
According to a statement from DSI, Prospector–1 will be a small craft just 110 pounds (50 kg) and will inherit radiation-tolerant payloads and avionics from its little sibling Prospector-X after its launch in 2017. Although DSI plans to one day scrape asteroids for metals and other resources, its first asteroid mining product will simply be water. Both Prospector crafts use the company’s proprietary water propulsion system, which uses superheated water vapor for thrust, rather than rocket fuel. So, the ability to mine asteroids for water means DSI will eventually be able to restock crucial resources like fuel and drinking water without the need for a return trip to Earth
The company plans to pick its first destination asteroid from “a group of top candidates” selected by the company’s in-house asteroid experts. When Prospector–1 arrives at its target, it will map the surface and subsurface with both visual and infrared cameras and determine the overall water content before touching down on asteroid using those same water vapor-powered thrusters. Once it has landed, the humble Prospector-1 will be the first commercial base ever established on a space object, paving the way for DSI’s next generation of asteroid harvesting missions.
“Prospector–1 is not only the first commercial interplanetary mission, it is also an important milestone in our quest to open the frontier,” DSI co-founder Rick Tumlinson said. “By learning to ‘live off the land’ in space, Deep Space Industries is ushering in a new era of unlimited economic expansion.”
Via: The Verge
Source: Deep Space Industries
Simplenote for Android is now open source
Simplenote releases the Android, iOS, and Mac client source code under the GPL. That gives us the warm fuzzies.
Simplenote is a lightweight yet full-featured note taking app that’s cross-platform on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac. It’s a great alternative to Evernote and their new pricing, and offers syncing and sharing as well as the ability to work while offline. And as of today, it’s now open source on all platforms.
As announced on their blog, the client side code for the Android, iOS, and Mac versions have been posted to Automattic’s Github where they join the Windows version that was previously open-sourced. This means that anyone can freely download the source code and build it themselves, or change it into something different and release it as another app. Though, as Phil points out Simplenote is really good at what it’s intended to do — be simple, and take notes.
The server-side portions are not open, so there’s a small hurdle for whoever wants to use the code as a base for the next great thing. Automattic may very well open-source the server bits, but even if they don’t a development team could plug their own server details into the code as it exists. In other words, good news all around.
We love it when any app goes open and especially love it when a great app does it.
Nice work, Automattic. And thanks.
This wireless flaw leaves millions of Volkswagens cars vulnerable
A team of researchers has revealed a vulnerability of Volkswagen vehicles that leaves almost all its cars manufactured since 1995 vulnerable to theft.
Later this week at the Usenix security conference in Austin, Texas the same group from the University of Birmingham and German engineering firm Kasper & Oswald plan to unveil some pretty disconcerting problems with the Volkswagen brand.
One such vulnerability gives potential attackers the ability to wirelessly unlock nearly every vehicle from Volkswagen over the last two decades. That includes Audi as well. The other attack affects Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel and Peugeot.
Using a $40 Arduino device potential thieves can intercept signals transmitted wirelessly through the air via key fob and then clone said key. It’s then smooth sailing from there and the vehicle is able to be unlocked. It’s not exactly simple by any means, equiring some reverse engineering on the thieves’ part.
There’s one special crytographic key value that millions of Volkswagen vehicles share, and using special radio hardware, this data can be intercepted, combining when a key fob is pressed to clone said key fob and then gain entry to the car.
The other attack, which will be revealed at Usenix as well, is a special cryptographic scheme called HiTag 2, where a hacker would need to use a radio setup like the Arduino kind used in the regular Volkswagen hack, intercepting special codes from drivers’ key fobs and collecting codes that would eventually result in an unlock.
These are some chilling developments for Volkswagen and other vehicle owners to be sure, especially since these are the flaws that were identified and explained away — what of those that are still out there? You can read the researchers’ full paper here for more details on the study and what will be announced.
Via: Wired
US government wants you to grow weed for science
Citizens hoping the US government would smile upon recent requests for deregulation, today is not your day: it will remain an illegal, schedule 1 controlled substance. But all is not lost, as the DEA announced it’s allowing more organizations to grow and distribute marijuana — just so long as it’s for research purposes.
Previously, the only legal supplier of weed for scientific study was the University of Mississippi. Over 350 researchers are registered to legally examine marijuana effects, but only eight get shipments from the academic institution each year. Now, organizations can apply to the DEA to become a registered grower, which the government agency hopes will lead to more FDA-approved research on the drug’s treatment potential. Coupled with the agency’s rejection of two petitions to legalize weed, it’s clear they want to heavily monitor every step from growth to lab.
Via: New Scientist
Source: DEA
Jibo’s social ‘family robot’ won’t ship to backers overseas
International crowdfunding is always risky business. Even if a project makes it to market, overseas backers usually have to pay a shipping premium. Sometimes, it’s worse: today backers of Jibo’s social ‘family robot’ have been told the product’s release has been cancelled in all markets except the US and Canada. The company is now preparing to issue refunds to customers in 45 countries. The issue? Jibo apparently has a hard time understanding accented English.
Jibo is supposed to be a relatable robot — an artificial intelligence that listens to natural language and responds with expressive “social and emotive cues” to create the illusion of personality. Like most voice recognition technology, this means connecting to a server to process data. Jibo found that the US-based servers would cause sever latency issues for international users, exacerbating Jibo’s struggle to understand accented English and contributing to a substandard experience.
Apparently, the issues were bad enough that the company doesn’t want customers outside of the US to even try to use the little robot. The company’s refund FAQ warns customers that using Jibo outside of the US or Canada will instantly void its warranty.
Despite the cancellations, Jibo still hopes to deliver the family robot to international customers eventually. “The right answer is a fully localized Jibo for your country,” The company says. “For example, a Jibo who speaks and understands Japanese with servers located in Japan.” Even so, folks hoping for a local version of the robot are still being asked to request refunds. The company doesn’t plan to expand to new markets until late 2017, and won’t commit to overseas pre-orders until it has a timeline for customers. In the meantime, international backers can request a full refund on the and read the official FAQ right here.
Source: Jibo, TechCrunch
Adblock Plus bypasses Facebook’s attempt to restrict ad blockers
The war between Facebook and ad blockers is heating up. Just two days after the social network announced plans to restrict software that removes its advertising, the popular utility Adblock Plus has already unveiled a workaround. All you need to do is update your Adblock Plus filters to banish those ads once again. Facebook previously said that it didn’t pay to be whitelisted by any ad blocking company, instead it changed how its ads are recognized, and also gave users more control over what sorts of ads they see.
“This sort of back-and-forth battle between the open source ad-blocking community and circumventers has been going on since ad blocking was invented; so it’s very possible that Facebook will write some code that will render the filter useless — at any time,” Adblock Plus’ Ben Williams wrote in a blog post. “If that happens, the ad-blocking community will likely find another workaround, then Facebook might circumvent again, etc.”
Williams also notes that the filter hasn’t been heavily tested — Adblock Plus will adjust it based on feedback from its users. Facebook, naturally, isn’t so keen on the update and points out that it may be blocking regular posts. “We’re disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook as these new attempts don’t just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages,” a spokesperson for Facebook told The Verge. “This isn’t a good experience for people and we plan to address the issue.”
It makes sense for Facebook to take a stronger stance against ad blockers, since its business is mostly dependent on ad revenue. But the swift response from the ad blocking community makes it clear this isn’t a battle Facebook is going to win anytime soon.
Via: The Verge
Source: Adblock Plus
Kansas duo sues IP mappers for putting them through ‘digital hell’
Imagine the exact center of the United States, somewhere in the middle of rural Kansas. There lies 360 acres of farmland rented by the Arnolds, a couple and their two sons who moved there in 2011. Within the week, law enforcement showed up looking for a stolen vehicle, the first in a deluge of visits from local, state and federal forces investigating crimes. Why show up at their farm? Because the IP address mapping company MaxMind made those coordinates the default location for users when they don’t know where they are in the US. Now the Arnolds have filed suit against them for all the trouble that comes with being the first place cops look when criminals try to mask their area.
The family had been bewildered by the repeated law enforcement attention for years until Fusion journalist Kashmir Hill dug into the issue a few months ago. As Hill reports, the Massachusetts-based MaxMind decided to invest in “IP Intelligence” in 2002 to sell companies a computer’s location for relevant ads, say. They unwittingly assigned the Arnolds’ farm as a default location when they couldn’t determine a physical address, which they’ve done for a staggering 650 million IPs. All well and good if it’s just used for business, but the company didn’t foresee law enforcement using their tech to hunt down criminals via their internet address.
When Kashmir contacted them to share what happened to the Arnolds, MaxMind changed the default location to one in the middle of a nearby lake, but the damage had been done, according to the family’s lawsuit. Law enforcement continues to show up at the farm, even as recently as a month ago, their lawyer told Ars Technica. The suit seeks up to $75,000 in damages, though they might seek more in forthcoming filings.
Source: Ars Technica
BlackBerry DTEK50 review
BlackBerry launched their first Android smartphone ever last year, and while there were a lot of people who were eagerly awaiting its launch, the Priv fell short of expectations. Granted, there were some good things going for it, but a lackluster camera and premium pricing meant that their first effort wasn’t exactly a smash hit.
- BlackBerry PRIV review
- BlackBerry DTEK50 hands on
Now, BlackBerry is back with their second attempt, and what BlackBerry is touting as the most secure smartphone in the world. What else does this device have to offer, and is security enough of a selling point to make this phone worth buying? We find out, in this in-depth BlackBerry DTEK50 review!
Buy the BlackBerry DTEK50 now
Design
When looking at the BlackBerry DTEK50, you will find that this device appears to be eerily similar to another phone that we’ve seen before, but not to worry, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. The design of the DTEK50 is actually based on the same TCL reference design that Alacatel used with the Ido 4, making them pretty much identical.
Everything from the curves at the top and bottom, the rounded corners, flat sides, and the dual front-facing and rear-facing speaker setup is found with the DTEK50, and the only distinguishable design element that separates this from the Idol 4 is on the back. Instead of a glass backing that is available with the latter, the DTEK50 features a textured material with a silicone-like feel.
This difference actually works in favor of the BlackBerry smartphone, with it not attracting fingerprints, and allowing for a lot of grip. The general shape of the DTEK50 is reminiscent of the Nexus 4, especially when looking at it from the front, so I’m definitely a fan of the design. It’s simple, clean, and easy to use with one hand, thanks to the thin side bezels and small top and bottom chin.
Taking a look around the device, the SIM and microSD card slot is on the right side, and the headphone jack and microUSB port are at the top and bottom respectively. The volume rocker is also on the right, and below it is a large circular button that you would expect is the power button. Instead, it is what BlackBerry is calling the “convenience key.” This is a completely programmable button that can be used for a variety of functions, like composing a text, controlling the LED flash, toggling Wi-Fi, or opening any app.
The power button is located on the upper left side of the phone, and that is actually my biggest gripe with the design of the DTEK50. Unless you use the phone with your left hand, it can be quite awkward and difficult to reach the power button, and will certainly take some getting used to. Thankfully, the phone does come with a double tap to wake and sleep feature, and even though it may not work as well, and can be quite slow at times, it’s still better than having to reach for the power button all the time. The convenience key can be used to lock the device, but unfortunately cannot wake it.
Display
The BlackBerry DTEK50 comes with a 5.2-inch IPS LCD display, with a Full HD resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 424 ppi. It’s not a display that is going to amaze, but you certainly won’t have any complaints either. It gets bright enough to see outdoors, has decent viewing angles, and offers a good amount of color and contrast, without being oversaturated. 1080p is more than enough at this display size, and reading text, watching videos, and playing games are all enjoyable on this screen.
Performance
Under the hood, the DTEK50 comes with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, clocked at 1.5 GHz, and backed by the Adreno 405 GPU and 3 GB of RAM. This processing package is pretty standard fare when it comes to mid-range smartphones in 2016, but the performance is a little bit of a mixed bag. With normal, everyday use, the smartphone works perfectly well.
The touch responsiveness is good, and opening, closing, and switching between apps doesn’t result in any problems, even if there is an occasional stutter here and there. While gaming, however, is where you will notice a lot of hiccups. Games are very playable for the most part, but load times can be pretty long, and there tends to be a lot of choppiness and lag when playing a game as basic as Pokemon Go.
This issue is even more pronounced if there are a lot of graphical elements on the screen at the same time. Games like CSR Racing 2 have to render graphics at a much lower resolution, and also limit some in-game functionality in order to run smoothly, which is a little disappointing. If you’re big into mobile gaming, the DTEK50 won’t make the cut, but for everything else, this phone will certainly get the job done.
Hardware
You only get 16 GB of on-board storage with the DTEK50, but the device does offer expandable storage via microSD card up to 256 GB, so if you are looking to download a lot of apps and games, you will definitely need to pick up a microSD card.
One of the best aspects of the DTEK50, as is also the case with the Idol 4, is the speaker setup of the device. You get dual front-facing speakers as well as dual rear-facing speakers, and the sound quality is pretty good. They get plenty loud, and the audio doesn’t sound tinny, or become distorted at the highest volumes. Since the speakers are also mirrored on the back, and you can put the phone face up or down without any deterioration in sound quality. The only issue with these speakers is that because of the tiny machined holes, they are very prone to getting dirty and trapping dust.
On the battery side, the DTEK50 comes with a 2,610 mAh unit, which is rather small when compared to other similar smartphones that are available. As such, battery life proves to be a weak point for this device. You can get a full day of battery life with light usage, but if you are someone who likes to play games, watch videos, and check social media often, the phone will unfortunately not last a day.
With similar usage, I needed to charge the device after just 7 or 8 hours. You do get Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0 support, so it doesn’t take long to get back to a full charge, but if you are on the move often, picking up a battery pack may be a good idea.
Camera
The BlackBerry DTEK50 comes with a 13 MP rear camera, with a f/2.0 aperture, phase detection auto focus, and a dual LED flash, along with an 8 MP front-facing shooter, with a f/2.2 aperture.
As far as the camera app is concerned, it is quite simplistic, with not a lot of bells and whistles. You don’t get any extra shooting modes beyond the standard video, photo, panorama, but it does have a bunch of live filters built in. There is also a HDR Auto mode, and a built-in manual mode for controlling the focus, white balance, shutter speed, ISO, and exposure.
To get a great looking photo with this camera, the lighting conditions have to be perfect, but even then, there is a noticeable lack of sharpness and detail when zooming in. The color reproduction is good though, when shooting outdoors or in well-lit areas.
However, in low-light conditions is where the image quality really deteriorates. The camera constantly hunts for focus, making it very difficult to take a photo, and when you do take a shot, they’re usually very noisy with a lot of artifacts, and the images just look soft and muddy.
The front-facing 8 MP isn’t particularly noteworthy either. You can take some decent selfies with it, and the notification LED can also double as a front-facing flash to help you get slightly better results in low-light situations, but the results are still typically not that great.
Software
The big selling point of the DTEK50 isn’t the design, the camera, or the specifications. It’s all about the software, and the security that comes along with it. The majority of the security comes from the DTEK application, which is also what gives this phone its name. DTEK will show you the security status of the device, and this can change over time the more you use the phone. With DTEK, all your data is encrypted, and you can control the permissions of individual apps and what they’re allowed to access, so you never have to worry about apps having access to things that you don’t want it to.
There’s also a factory reset protection, so in the event that someone steals your phone and factory resets it, they still won’t be able to use the phone without knowing your Google account info. Whether it really is the most secure smartphone in the world is pretty tough to say, but BlackBerry is promising that they will be very quick to release security patch updates as soon as they are available.
The rest of the software is a very stock-like Android 6.0 Marshmallow experience, with a lot of Blackberry’s software enhancements on top, many of which were seen with the Priv last year. It comes with BBM installed by default, which is something I personally don’t use, but could be ideal for those who still love communicating via BBM.
However, I do like a lot of the features from BlackBerry, and many of them are actually pretty useful. You have the productivity tab, which you can access by swiping from the right, to see your current calendar events, emails, tasks, and your most recent contacts.
My favorite feature of the lot definitely has to be the BlackBerry Hub. If you aren’t familiar with it, the BlackBerry Hub is your one stop shop for virtually all your notifications. It aggregates your BBMs, text messages, emails, phone calls, and social media, all in one place, making them very easy to check. It does have some issues, such as Gmail not rendering properly through the Hub, but for the most part it does what it is suppose to do extremely well.
You can also swipe up from the bottom, similar to how you would access Google Now before, but here, you get access to three app shortcuts, which are set to BlackBerry Search, the dialer, and the Hub, by default. You can change them to whatever you want though.
BlackBerry gives you a lot of room for tweaking and customization, and something that I really enjoy is the fact that you can use third party icon packs to customize the default launcher. If you’re a fan of widgets, the Pop Up widgets is another very useful feature. Basically, any app that you have that supports a widget will display 3 dots beneath it, and all you have to do is swipe up to open the widget. It’s a really elegant solution to using widgets without having them take up any space on your home screens.
Of course, you can’t talk about a BlackBerry without talking about keyboards. The DTEK50 is an all touch screen device, so it obviously doesn’t have a physical keyboard, but it does come with BlackBerry’s own software keyboard. It’s accurate and easy to type on, and I like that the predictive text allows you to swipe up on a letter to quickly complete a word.
BlackBerry’s software isn’t perfect, and it does have some minor quirks, like the way the app drawer looks when the apps are sorted alphabetically. They’re not only sorted alphabetically, but it’s also sectioned out by the letter, and visually just doesn’t look very appealing. Overall though, I’m a fan of the software package, and their features add a lot of value, without making the experience feel boated, or taking away from the stock Android experience.
Specifications
| Display | 5.2-inch IPS LCD display 1080p, 424 ppi |
| Processor | 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Adreno 405 GPU |
| RAM | 3 GB |
| Storage | 16 GB expandable via microSD card up to 256 GB |
| Camera | 13 MP rear camera, f/2.0 aperture, dual LED flash 8 MP front-facing camera |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 NFC GPS + GLONASS microUSB 2.0 |
| Battery | 2,610 mAh |
| Software | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
| Dimensions | 147 x 72.5 x 7.4 mm 135 grams |
Gallery
Pricing and final thoughts
The BlackBerry DTEK50 will be priced at $300 in the US, and will be available unlocked, and can be used with AT&T and T-Mobile.
There you have it for this in-depth look at the BlackBerry DTEK50! $300 is relatively cheap, especially if you want a smartphone that prioritizes security. If that is the case, you’re probably not going to find a better deal.
However, as far as phones go, there are a few better options out there that offer a lot more for similar prices, like the OnePlus 3, the Moto G4 Plus, and the Axon 7. If you do store a lot of sensitive information on your phone, the DTEK50’s top notch security will be well worth the investment, but if there is one major flaw, it is that BlackBerry didn’t make it a better phone all around.
What do you think about the BlackBerry DTEK50 and would you buy one? Is smartphone security as important to you as say, things like the camera, display or battery? Let us know your views in the comments below!
Buy the BlackBerry DTEK50 now
