Facebook Shuts Down 583 Million Accounts

Facebook just released crucial information that showcased how the social media company is acting against people producing inappropriate content or fake accounts. The social media giant has decided to eliminate all the glitches of the site by axing 583 million fake accounts (that’s almost a quarter of the total accounts) in the first three months of 2018 as a way to enforce community standards.

Facebook’s new report, which it plans to update twice a year, comes a month after the company published its internal rules for how reviewers decide what content should be removed.

This was as a result of the  intense scrutiny the company came under earlier this year over the use of private data and the impact of harmful content on its 2.2 billion monthly users, with governments around the world questioning the company’s policies.
Facebook said those closures came on top of blocking millions of attempts to create fake accounts every day. Despite this, the group said fake profiles still make up between 3% to 4% percent of all the current active accounts. It also claimed to have detected almost 100 percent of spam and to have removed 837 million posts that had spam.

Along with fake accounts, Facebook said in its transparency report that it had removed 21 million pieces of content featuring sex or nudity, 2.5 million pieces of hate speech and almost 2 million items related to terrorism.

How did Facebook do it
Facebook stated that artificial intelligence has played an essential role in helping the social media company flag down content. The social media network’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg credited AI’s role in taking down the material, but he added that it was hard to pinpoint hate speech variations. He wrote:

AI still needs to get better before we can use it to effectively remove more linguistically nuanced issues like hate speech in different languages, but we’re working on it

But humans still help
However, Facebook’s AI was far less effective at capturing hate speech, with just 38 percent of 2.5 million pieces of hate speech removed before humans reported it. Facebook said:

Artificial intelligence isn’t good enough yet to determine whether someone is pushing hate or describing something that happened to them so they can raise awareness of the issue,” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s VP of Product Management

To increase its effectiveness, the company says it has 10,000 human moderators helping it to remove objectionable content and plans to double that number by the end of the year.

Apple and Samsung fight over what made the iPhone 'revolutionary'

Is a smartphone a unitary design or just a collection of patented tidbits?

At a patent infringement damages trial, Apple attorney Bill Lee notes that a Samsung executive said the Apple iPhone brought a "crisis of design."

When it comes to smartphones, is the whole greater than the sum of its parts? Apple thinks so. But on Tuesday, in a patent suit with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, the company's lawyers faced off against a Samsung legal team that thinks different.

In opening arguments for a damages phase of the patent suit -- Samsung already has been found to infringe -- Apple attorney Bill Lee argued that three design patents, while covering merely cosmetic aspects of iPhones, are in fact key to making the phones look good and work well. That's why Apple wants Samsung to pay more than $1 billion for its infringement.

"Design is what ties it all together," Lee said in US District Court, Northern District of California, located in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose. "The end result was revolutionary."

But Samsung's attorney, John Quinn, held up specific phone components -- a screen cover, a bezel that surrounds it, a display that's underneath -- and told a jury that's where the infringement took place. "This is the article of manufacture," Quinn said of the components. "Apple is certainly not entitled to the profits on the whole phone."

The case not only will determine how much Samsung has to pay, but also how much countless other technology companies might have to worry about patents in the future. The more broadly patents apply, the more they're worth, the greater leverage patent holders have, and the harder it is for competitors to challenge them.

Samsung attorney John Quinn argues to jurors that it's tough to tell which Samsung phones violated Apple patents and which didn't.

The lawsuit began in 2011 and made it all the way to the Supreme Court in late 2016 before being sent back to the lower court, where it resumed Monday. Earlier cases already found that several now-obsolete Samsung devices infringed five Apple patents -- two utility patents and three design patents -- but what's still up in the air is exactly how much Samsung must pay in damages.

Samsung has already paid $548 million, but a $399 million portion of that could be changed because of the Supreme Court decision. It centered on an issue of what exactly constitutes an "article of manufacture" that a patent governs. Apple argues that it should be the entire product -- a phone in this instance -- but Samsung is making the case that it could just be a component of a phone. Depending on who the jury finds persuasive, the actual penalty could increase or decrease.

Samsung argues that a company that owns a patent on just a car's cup holder shouldn't be able to collect the profit from the entire car. Some estimates say more than 250,000 patents go into a smartphone, and the original penalty against Samsung was based on the value of the entire phone.

US District Court in San Jose

The Silicon Valley courthouse where Apple and Samsung are duking it out.

But Apple argues that though Samsung's devices infringed only part of the iPhone's design, Samsung should pay damages based on the value of its entire device. If one phone's design is similar to that of an iPhone, the thinking goes, Apple could lose the sale of an entire phone.

'Design is at the heart of Apple'
Apple has one word the jurors are hearing over and over: design.

"Design is at the heart of Apple and the heart of this case," Lee said. "Apple puts design before everything else. Apple first and foremost wants to make beautiful products that people like you want to purchase and, more importantly, use."

Three of the patents Samsung infringed are for design, a type of patent that covers ornamental attributes. They are US Patent No. D618,677 (D'677 for short), which describes a black, rectangular, round-cornered front face; US Patent No. D593,087 (D'087), which describes a similar rectangular round-cornered front face plus the surrounding rim, known as the bezel; and US Patent No. D604,305 (D'305), which describes a colorful grid of icons. Damages for infringing these designs should be more than $1 billion, Apple argues.

An illustration in Apple's US Patent No. D618,677 (D'677 patent)

Patent D'677 is "a wonderful example of how a distinctive design can bring together everything into a central design that can be used simply and intuitively," Lee said.

To support his case, Lee showed a memo from J.K. Shin, then leader of Samsung's mobile division, who called the arrival of the iPhone "a crisis of design." Shin didn't call it a crisis of features, a crisis of technology, a crisis of components, Lee said.

Two utility patents, which govern technology and how features work, also are at issue. But Apple seeks a comparative pittance for infringing them -- only $5 million.

Samsung's Quinn tried to get the jury to focus on elements of Samsung and Apple phones and see the patents as covering only narrow aspects of design, what he called "minor design details."

"This is not a dinner plate. This is a complex device with many different components," Quinn said.

He argued that components such as bezels and screen glass are complete articles of manufacture, something that's made on its own and can be purchased on its own. Apple even has entire teams that tear down rival products to scrutinize each element, he said.

At a patent infringement damages trial, Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of product marketing, answers questions from Apple attorney Bill Lee about Apple's history of product design.

"There are now hundreds of articles of manufacture inside a phone. The only way Apple can come up with $1 billion in damages is by saying the article of manufacture applies to the whole phone," Quinnn said. "None of the patents is the whole phone."

And disputing Apple's assertion that Samsung's phone sales surged only after it started copying the iPhone, he argued that people bought other phones for many reasons.

"The reason sales took off is because Samsung switched to the Google Android operating system," Quinn said. "That and other innovations that Samsung made, like 4G capability, larger screens, faster processors and the ability to use all cellular carriers, not just AT&T -- that is what drove Samsung sales."

2017 off to a SpecTECHular start "The Best Of CES 2017" A Must Read

SAMSUNG CHROMEBOOK PLUS

Our favorite product at CES isn’t a glitzy OLED television or an electron-sipping car, but a laptop; and not even a particularly flashy one. It’s a humble Chromebook. But modesty is one of the things we love most about Samsung’s Chromebook Plus. It’s important, and interesting – yet accessible.
Designed with cooperation from Google, the Chromebook Plus is the first Chrome OS device built with Android apps in mind. The 2,400 x 1,600 panel has a digitizer for built-in stylus support, and flips a full 360 degrees for dedicated tablet use. It’s one of the sturdiest Chromebooks we’ve laid hands on, in a field full of systems that cheap out with plastic components and low-resolution panels.
But the real draw is the Google Play Store. While Chrome OS already provides a suite of useful web-based apps, the rich Android ecosystem brings huge new functionality. And since it was built with Play support from the start, the Plus has features that are needed for perfect compatibility – like an accelerometer. Google Play is a big deal for Chromebooks, and we’ll see roll out to more models over 2017, but Samsung’s latest is the pioneer.
Samsung’s Chromebook Plus with an ARM processor will roll out starting next month for $449, while the Intel Core-powered alternative, called the Pro, should make an appearance in the first half of 2017. Unlike most new tech at CES, the Plus is a device most people can afford, make use of every day, and we expect to see it rise in the best-seller rankings as soon as it’s sold.


AUTOMOTIVE
NVIDIA PILOTNET

Many automakers are gunning for high-level autonomous vehicles by 2020, which is just a short three years away. To do that, it’s going to take more than just networking a bunch of cameras and sensors to monitor conditions — a car will have to learn what to do when those conditions change. Nvidia’s PilotNet gives cars the brainpower to do just that.
Running on Nvidia’s Drive PX 2, the company’s autonomous driving hardware, PilotNet employs “deep learning,” which is basically a computer’s way of dealing with the abstract. It acts like a neural network, learning habits demonstrated to it and applying them to safe driving.
At CES this year, Nvidia demonstrated these capabilities by “teaching” an Audi Q7 to drive around a demonstration course in a couple of days. After that, the car — without having the course mapped — learned how to drive it on its own, and even how to safely alter the route when it was obstructed by an obstacle.
What impressed us the most, however, was the lack of drama in our demonstration: The Q7 concept drove itself with the poise of a human chauffeur. It felt like just another person was driving, and that’s ultimately the point. From what we’ve seen of PilotNet, we’re looking forward to sharing the roads of 2020 and beyond with cars that have learned a wealth of safe driving habits.


COMPUTING
DELL XPS 13 2-IN-1

Dell’s XPS 13, introduced at CES two years ago, was a revelation. It proved not only that Windows laptops can be awesome, but also that they can achieve greatness without copying Apple’s MacBook Pro. The XPS 13’s thin-bezel design and carbon fiber-infused chassis was like nothing we’d seen before. We liked it so much, we gave it our Best Of CES award in 2015.
Now, Dell has brought the same quality and creativity to the 2-in-1 form factor with its appropriately named XPS 13 2-in-1. While it admittedly adheres closely to the XPS 13’s formula, that’s not much of a problem, because no one has really caught up to it. And as you might expect, the XPS 13 2-in-1 shaves weight and thickness. It’s 0.56 inches thick at most, though feels thinner due to its tapered design, and tips the scales at 2.7 pounds.
The subtle changes made converting the XPS 13 to a 2-in-1 have also refined its look and feel. Compared to the traditional laptop, the 2-in-1 seems even sturdier, and its chassis lacks the relatively chunky rear end of its peer. Many small touches have been introduced to make this possible, such as an antenna that’s integrated into the display lid without the need for an antenna strip.
Yet one thing hasn’t changed: The XPS 13 2-in-1 is still a great laptop. The display looks outstanding, the keyboard is wonderful, and the touchpad is responsive. It feels like a system we’d be happy to use every day. It’s hard to maintain the balance between 2-in-1 portability and laptop functionality, but Dell has walked that tightrope.
Dell sells the XPS 2-in-1 for $999, and it’s available now.

COOL TECH
MONOPRICE DELTA MINI

This year at CES, Monoprice unveiled a 3D printer that costs $150. Let that sink in for a minute.
Just a few short years ago, you would’ve been hard pressed to find a decent 3D printer for less than $1000 – but now, you can get one for the same price as an iPod Nano. That, my friends, is a pretty big deal. We’ve finally reached a point where this amazing technology is available to everyone.
But price alone isn’t why we’re giving the Monoprice Delta Mini our best of CES award. Despite being outrageously affordable, it’s also extremely sturdy, capable, and user friendly. Just like its predecessor, the MP Select Mini, the Delta Mini is equipped with a range of high-end features that are usually only found in printers that cost much, much more than $150.
In addition to a sturdy metal frame, the Delta Mini boasts a heated bed (which helps prevent prints from warping), an adjustable temperature hot end (which allows you to print with a variety of different materials), and a full color LCD screen to help you navigate settings. You won’t find this stuff on any other printer under $200 – I guarantee it.
A cheap printer alone doesn’t impress us – but a cheap printer that can stand toe to toe with machines that cost five times as much? Now that’s something special.

COOL TECH
ABILITY3D 888

Ever since 3D printing broke into the consumer space, proponents of the technology have foretold of a utopian future in which 3D printers are a household staple akin to dishwashers and microwaves — where we can print products on-demand instead of buying them at a store.
That hasn’t happened yet. Why? It’s hard to say – but one thing that’s certainly holding printers back from widespread adoption is the fact that most of them can only make plastic parts. Don’t get me wrong – I’d love to be able to print a doorknob or a showerhead and skip the visit to K-Mart, but if my only choice is printing in plastic, I’ll happily drive to the store for something better.
Ability3D wants to change this. Company founder and former NASA engineer Ben Willard has created an innovative new 3D printer (called the 888) which is capable of printing high quality metal parts in the comfort of your own home. But that’s not what’s impressive about it. Metal printers have been around for years at this point – but unfortunately, even the cheapest ones cost as much as a Lamborghini. What’s incredible about the 888 is that when it hits Kickstarter later this year, it’ll retail for less than $3,000.
So why does this printer cost so much less than currently available metal printers? It’s all about technique. Rather than using lasers to fuse metal powder into a solid object, the 888 uses a combination of MIG welding and CNC routing to achieve a similar effect. Because welding machines, metal filament, and CNC toolheads are all relatively accessible and cheap, Willard can sell his printer for a fraction of the cost.


COOL TECH
SQUARE OFF

Chess may have made its way to computers and smartphones in the roughly 1,500 years since its invention, but the physical board itself hasn’t changed much.
Infivention’s Square Off is changing that with artificial intelligence, magnets, and Wi-Fi. Square Off is a large, hand-crafted rosewood chess set that uses magnets underneath the surface to move pieces — almost as though you’re playing Wizard’s Chess from Harry Potter.
Self-moving chess boards aren’t exactly new (see Phantom Force), but what makes Square Off unique is that it comes with a companion app. With the app, anyone in the world can play a game with you and you’ll see their moves come to life on your board.
What’s even crazier is that you can “live-stream” chess games happening around the world to your board. So if grandmasters are squaring off somewhere in the world, you can watch their moves in real time on your board.
Want to solo it? You can always play against the board’s AI — there are 20 different difficulty modes to choose from.
Square Off will start at $250 and is expected to ship in April thanks to a successfully-funded Kickstarter campaign from November 2016.


GAMING
HTC VIVE TRACKER

The HTC Vive, our favorite product of 2016, is about to get a whole lot more interesting. The HTC Vive tracker is a small black disc that can be attached any supported device and make it visible to the Vive’s room-scale sensors — you can now bring props into VR.
VR is still a medium in its infancy, but the Vive Tracker will boost it many steps forward by removing the layer of abstraction created by the controller. Instead of thinking about which buttons to press, you simply act. Everyone knows how to swing a baseball bat. Anyone can pick up a ball with their hands. Moreover, the simple act of holding the real object in your hands, which has a real weight and feel, adds a sensory element to VR that’s simply impossible to emulate with a standard controller.
Working with third-party hardware- and software-makers, there are already a number of new VR controllers on the way, ranging from VR gaming essentials — guns, gloves — to more abstract, experimental ideas like a VR camera. From what we’ve seen, these controller work with the same low latency and accurate control as the standard Vive controller.
Last year, the HTC Vive transported us to other worlds and let us walk around. In 2017, we’ll be able to act in them.

HEADPHONES
BEYERDYNAMICS’ XELENTO REMOTE

CES 2017 was poised to be the year of the true wireless earbud, and there were plenty of examples on the floor — with varying levels of quality. Battery life issues still plague many of these new wireless wonders, while others simply aren’t ready for primetime when it comes to usability and wireless connectivity. As such, we decided to go the other way this year and choose an example of good old fashioned amazing sound.
Enter Beyerdynamics’ stunning Xelento Remote, an updated version of the Astell & Kern AK Ti8E. To fashion its latest audiophile gem, Beyerdynamics shrunk down the the company’s storied Tesla dynamic moving coil driver. The result beats out the new upstarts with the best sound from a headphone we’ve heard at the show. Even on the noisy showroom floor, it’s evident that Beyerdymamic has something special in the Xelento Remote. Melding a brilliant mix of stunning clarity, excellent balance, precision, and a gorgeous aluminum design, Beyerdynamics’ Xelento Remote proves that corded beauties can still win the day.
The earphones come with dual tangle-free cables, including one with a remote (hence the name) and a wide variety of accessories. With a price point of around $1,000, these are firmly in the audiophile category, but those looking for uncompromising sound and a sterling aesthetic will want to give the Xelento Remote a long look, and listen.

HOME APPLIANCE
GE FIRSTBUILD PARAGON MAT

How hot do your stove’s burners get? Aside from an arbitrary number on a dial, you have no idea. Medium-high on your front left burner might not be the same as medium-high on your back left burner, and that’s what GE FirstBuild is trying to fix with its Paragon Mat.
Ovens let you select a temperature, but that exact control isn’t found on cooktops. Though the Bluetooth-connected mat currently only works with GE’s Induction Cooktop, the future implications are pretty intriguing. When you make pancakes, the batter cools the pan down a bit, but your burner doesn’t adjust for that. The Mat does. Using a sensor, it constantly monitors the temperature of the pan resting on top it, and then it cranks up or lowers the Cooktop in response. The result is more precise cooking.
Because it’s app-controlled, GE will be able to guide users through cooking their first grilled cheese or rasher of bacon. From there, the results should always be repeatable. If you like your bacon a little crispier, you can fiddle with the temperature down to the degree. Once you have it figured out, your bacon should always come out perfect. GE has been known to take innovations created by its FirstBuild division and implement them in its more mainstream appliances. In five years or so, we’d love to see this technology in full-size induction cooktops, so we never have to throw out the first pancake again.


HOME AUDIO
GOLDENEAR TRITON REFERENCE

GoldenEar’s statement speakers, the Triton One, stand tall as one of the few speakers (or products in general) to garner a perfect score from our review section, offering a mix of incredible precision up top, a warm and smooth midrange, and what we simply referred to as “Best. Bass. Ever.” This year at CES, GoldenEar has done it again with its uncompromising new flagship towers, the Triton Reference.
Calling its new speakers “an evolution of everything that we have achieved with the Triton One,” GoldenEar has spared no expense, and left no instrumental timbre unturned with the new Reference speakers. In our listening session, the speakers bowled us over with the same tight and powerful bass we gushed over from the Triton One, now with even more power and expansive rigidity. The newly re-designed ribbon tweeters and six-inch midrange woofers massaged our ears with near-live reproductions of brass, piano, guitar, and cymbals.
Trumpets soar with the Triton Reference, while piano cuts through with a luscious touch of creamy ivory that seems to only sound better as the notes move up the keyboard. The soundstage seemed to expand like an ocean before us in the small Las Vegas suite in which we auditioned the speakers, while still accurately placing each instrument in space. While the Triton Reference’s price of $8,500 per pair price isn’t for the timid, you’ll have a hard time finding a better ride in a tower speaker at this price point or above.


Home Video
Sony Bravia A1E 4K UHD OLED TV

Picking a winner for our Best Tech of CES in the home video category is always difficult – there are usually three or more extremely qualified candidates – but this year, the race was tighter than ever. With Samsung’s new QLED technology and LG’s stunning W7 Series Wallpaper OLED in the mix, a determination took hours of consideration. In the end, though, Sony’s jaw-dropping Bravia A1E OLED TV walks away with our award.
Sony was reluctant to jump into the OLED game, but with recent OLED panel advancements and dropping prices, the time was right. Sony told Digital Trends it set out to create the best OLED TV on the market, and while we’ll reserve judgement on that point until we’ve had an opportunity to review this year’s batch, we are confident in calling the Bravia A1E OLED a remarkable achievement.
Processing – the brain inside a TV – is what separates the good from the great. Sony’s processing has always been among the very best, and its 4K HDR X1 Extreme processor is its finest achievement yet. That processor, combined with truly innovative design elements, results in what has become a bright shining star at this year’s CES.
In additional to mesmerizing picture quality, the Bravia A1E 4K OLED TV incorporates an audio system unlike any other on the market. A pairing of dual-actuators affixed to the TV panel itself vibrate the screen to create sound – there are no conventional speakers built into the TV cabinet. This allows for a very slim TV, and surprisingly convincing sound. Paired with a small 4-inch “subwoofer” built into the TV’s stand, the audio was full-bodied, crystal clear, and full of stereo effects.
Check out our video and full rundown of the A1E OLED from the CES show floor, and keep an eye out for our full review in the coming months.


MOBILE
HONOR 6X

Budget phones don’t have to be ugly and boring anymore. The $250 Honor 6X is a new breed of budget phone with a strong dual-camera setup that performs many of the same tricks as Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus for a third of the price.
Its slick metal build gives it the look and feel of a premium flagship phone that you’ll be proud to carry with you everywhere. The Honor 6X impressed us with its speedy performance and solid battery life. It’s nearly three times faster than last year’s Honor 5X, which cost $200.
The 1080p screen resolution is nothing to sneeze at, either. It’s not every day a budget phone performs this well and takes such high-quality photos. Honor promises to bring the latest version of Android Nougat to the 6X in January of this year, too, so you’ll soon see a more streamlined, modern software experience on the phone.
Although budget phones aren’t the most exciting devices in the world, they are very popular, and it’s refreshing to see such a high performing and stylish device arrive with a price tag that’s less than $300. The Honor 6X represents the future of powerful, beautiful budget phones.


OUTDOOR
GOAL ZERO YETI LITHIUM 3000

Goal Zero introduced a massive upgrade to its line of Yeti portable power stations at CES 2017. Where the previous models used lead-acid batteries, the new Yeti Lithium line uses Panasonic-made lithium-ion batteries – the same battery technology inside Tesla electric cars.
The new battery packs feature a long list of improvements over the company’s previous models, including a more powerful AC inverter, a smart digital screen for monitoring energy consumption, faster charging times, and the ability to daisy chain the batteries to achieve longer run times. The new products also weigh considerably less, making them a much better solution for use while camping, tailgating, or even just around home.
The Yeti Lithium line is capable of being backup power in case of power outages, which means you don’t need to scramble to eat all your ice cream in the dark during a blackout. Those into motorsports will also appreciate the Yeti Lithium as it’s capable of powering air compressors, tire warmers, and other power tools. It’s simpler, lighter, more portable power without all the noise, drama, and weight of tradition gas-powered generators or lead-acid batteries.


PHOTOGRAPHY
PANASONIC LUMIX GH5

Panasonic teased us with the Lumix GH5 mirrorless camera last year during Photokina, but it was at CES 2017 where it officially unveiled the highly anticipated camera and revealed all the details – and they’re impressive. The GH5 brings 4K movie capture at 60 frames per second (180fps if you shoot in Full HD), and there’s no time limit (most 4K-capable cameras muster 30fps at 30 minutes). And priced at $1,999 (body only, available in March), it brings professional-level filmmaking to consumers, enthusiasts, YouTubers, and even pros working on a budget.
Its predecessor, the GH4, is considered by many to be one of the best and affordable digital cameras for video, bringing 4K to the masses. With the weather-sealed GH5, not only can you shoot in 4K at 60fps, but you get 10-bit 4:2:2 output, fast autofocusing, a full-size HDMI port, and five-axis image stabilization (even steadier if you pair it with a image stabilized lens). Panasonic is using a new 20.3-megapixel sensor with a no optical low-pass filter and Venus images processor that are 1.7 times and 1.3 times faster, respectively, than the components in the GH4. The new Venus engine also delivers better color performance. In short: specs that filmmakers desire, in a video camera that’s more compact and attainable than much heavier and expensive cinema gear.
For consumers, Panasonic includes user-friendly features that make it easy to operate. It’s also introducing 6K Photo burst mode that, like the previous 4K Photo, lets a user extract a high-resolution images out of a 4K video. But instead of an 8MP image, 6K Photo delivers 16MP. Still photographers will love the fast continuous shooting at 12 fps, or 9 fps with continuous autofocus.
Panasonic continues to push the envelope of what its flagship Micro Four Thirds cameras can do, particular when it comes to video. The GH5 looks to further this trend, and should satisfy video makers of all levels.

SMART HOME
SLEEP NUMBER 360 SMART BED

Sleep sensors have a lot of potential, but so much depends on position. If you wear it on your wrist, is it really going to take your breathing into account? That’s where a whole smart bed has the advantage, but then the question becomes, what do you do with all that data? Knowing you got a terrible night’s sleep isn’t much good unless you can do something with it.
Sleep Number’s 360 Smart Bed can actually act on the data it collects. Sleep Number introduced a smart bed at last year’s CES, but the 360 Smart Bed is more like a responsive bed. It has the same tech but instead of merely offering suggestions for better sleep, it works to help you stay in Sleepy Town.
First, it adjusts the fill position, via its pumps, based on your body position. When you flip from your stomach to your side, it will cradle you differently, hopefully keeping your comfort at an optimal level in the process. It also heats your feet 15 minutes before you go to bed and can work with Nest to raise or lower the room’s temperature, based on whether you sleep best in tropical or igloo conditions.
But the thing that will come as a godsend to many an unhappy couple is the snore technology. The bed can actually detect snoring and slightly raise the head of the log sawer – without waking them – before the noise disturbs anyone else. It’s a sleep tracker that also offers solutions, while keeping your feet nice and warm.

SPORT & FITNESS
GARMIN FENIX 5S

Bonafidetech Tips has been tracking Garmin’s line of athletic- and outdoors-centric Fenix smartwatches since the introduction of the first model in 2013. Not a single model failed to take home either an Editor’s Choice or Recommended award, so it’s little surprise the Garmin’s excellence continues in the new Fenix 5, 5S, and 5X. While the Fenix 5’s 47mm face addresses one of our main complaints with the Fenix 3’s bulkiness, it’s the 5S’s 42mm measure that has us most excited about the new model.
Garmin says that the 5S was designed with a focus on female adventurers, but the design is very neutral and unisex, making it easily the most accessible and generally appealing out of the bunch. The laws of physics mean that a smaller casing means less battery capacity, but even then, the 5S lasts up to eight days in smartwatch mode and 13 hours in GPS mode. To us, that’s a small concession for a watch that’s literally a better fit for anyone who felt that the bulk of the previous model was holding them back from the Fenix.
The smaller Fenix 5S gives up nothing else in relation to its bigger brother, the Fenix 5, and is our most anticipated adventure watch for 2017.


WEARABLES
WILLOW BREAST PUMP

Women’s tech is the most overlooked segment of a very big industry. This year at CES, all that changed. A number of interesting companies are innovating in women’s tech, and the star of this year’s show is the Willow breast pump. Any woman who’s breast fed their babies knows the struggle of pumping breast milk. It’s no easy task and it can be painful or difficult to do at work or in other public situations. The breast pump hasn’t changed much in decades, but Willow is changing that. Its smart breast pump is a subtle wearable that slides right into your bra and collects milk without the pain or hassle of a tubular, archaic machine. The pump is easy to clean, small enough to transport without issue, and subtle enough to use in public. A leak proof pouch collects the breast milk for storage or later use, and the app helps you keep track of the dates and times you pumped the milk, so you know what’s fresh. The pump is smart enough to react to different levels of milk production and other changes a woman’s body goes through. Willow is nothing short of a game changer for women, their babies, and their families.

The Acoustic Chamber lets you experience absolute silence

The Acoustic Chamber is just one section of a large array of environmental testing labs; where products are tested for regulatory compliance – including EMC, safety, NEBS (Network Equipment Building System), earthquake, and altitude. The Acoustic Lab was constructed for the purpose of testing the noise levels of routers and switches in various sizes. 

 

The wide space of the lab is capped off with extremely high ceilings—and every section of the room is covered with white sound-absorbing padding; acoustic foam. The visuals of the opaque-white, expansive room immediately transports visitors into a sci-fi fantasy. 

 

My mission—along with discovering the purpose and history of one of the most exclusive testing labs—was to see how long I could withstand in a room of absolute silence.  

6 easy ways to speed up Windows 10 Make your PC faster without installing an SSD.

Windows 10 may be practically brand-new, but it still suffers from some typical Windows performance issues -- especially if you're running it on an older machine. Here are some quick, easy ways to improve your PC's performance on the new operating system without swapping out your hardware. (Most of these tricks will also work on older versions of Windows.)

Go opaque



Windows 10's new Start menu is sexy and see-through, but that transparency will cost you some (slight) resources. To reclaim those resources, you can disable transparency in the Start menu, taskbar, and action center: Open the Settings menu and go to Personalization > Colors and toggle off Make Start, taskbar, and action center transparent.

No special effects

Making the Start menu, taskbar, and action center transparent is one thing, but Windows 10 still has a lot of other snazzy, built-in special effects. To really go bare-bones on the special effects, right-click the Start button and click System.



Click Advanced system settings to open the System Properties menu, and then, under Performance, click Settings...



This will open the Performance Options menu. In the Visual Effects tab, either choose Adjust for best performance to turn off all unnecessary animations and special effects, or choose Custom: and deselect the visual effects you think can live without. When you're finished, click OK to apply your changes.

Disable Startup programs



If your PC is taking a long time to boot up -- and you've enabled Fast Startup and everything -- you may have too many programs starting up when you turn your computer on. To fix this, right-click on the Start button and click Task Manager. Click the Startup tab (click More details if you don't see the Startup tab) and peruse the list of programs that start up with your computer. If you see a program that doesn't need to be there, right-click it and click Disable. You can also arrange the list of programs by Startup impact, if you'd like to see the programs that are taking up the most resources (and time).

Find (and fix) the problem



Windows 10 has a built-in performance troubleshooter that can help you find and fix any problems that might be affecting your PC's speed. To open the troubleshooter, right-click on the Start button and click Control Panel. Go to Troubleshooting and under System and Security, click Run maintenance tasks.

Reduce the Boot Menu Time-out

When your computer starts up, the boot menu is displayed for a certain amount of time before the operating system loads. This gives you time to do things like start Windows in Safe Mode. You can shave a few seconds off your startup time by changing the boot menu time-out, which is set to 30 seconds by default.



To do this, right-click on the Start button and click Control Panel. Go to System > Advanced system settings, and, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.


Next to Time to display list of operating systems:, change the value from 30 seconds to 10 seconds and click OK.

Restart your PC

Is speeding up your computer as simple as...restarting it? Maybe. Restarting your PC clears out its memory and stops any processes that might be taking up resources. Also, shutting down your computer is not the same as restarting it -- shutdown is affected by Windows 10's Fast Startup, which saves a snapshot of your PC and its processes in a hiberfile for faster boot-up. Restart is not affected by Fast Startup, so if you have Fast Startup enabled, restarting your PC is the only way to fully clear the memory and shutdown processes.

Galaxy Note 7 recall: Everything you need to know about returning and exchanging your phone If you have a Samsung Galaxy Note 7, you need to read this now.

What is the Galaxy Note 7 recall about?

Samsung voluntarily recalled its Galaxy Note 7 phone when some buyers noticed a major battery flaw that caused the phone to explode and sometimes burst into flames, damaging property and leaking dangerous chemicals.

Shortly after Samsung's recall, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) made the recall official, in part due to an appeal by Consumer Reports. That means the phones can't be sold in the US (other countries may follow suit). Certain airlines are blocking use of the phone onboard planes as well. Although Samsung says a small number of devices experienced a problem -- initially 35 of an estimated 2.5 million made -- the nightmare keeps worsening with new reports of explosions. When pressed how many total cases have been reported, Samsung told CNET, "We have no additional information to share about this at this time."

Is it dangerous to keep using my phone? Is it possible that my Note 7 will spontaneously combust?

Yes. Instances of fire and bodily harm are still coming to light. If you own a Note 7, you should power it down immediately and seek to exchange or replace the phone (see below).

Really, though, it feels fine.

You really need to return the phone. Turn it off. Now.

What should I do if my phone catches fire?

If you can, douse the flames with a fire extinguisher or baking soda. Water will help, too (if the phone isn't plugged in). If you don't have those items, try to (safely) move it to a non-flammable surface and let it burn out.

How to pick the perfect smart scale Interested in buying a smart scale? This guide will outline what to look for and provide recommendations on top scales

I've been asked many times about the benefits of owning a connected smart scale. The answer is quite simple -- convenience. Instead of recording your weight manually, smart scales do the job for you, syncing with various health apps so you can track your weight over time. Lots of companies make them, but how do you choose? And when does convenience become hassle?

Over the past few weeks I've been testing smart scales from Fitbit, Withings, Garmin, Under Armour and *Pivotal Living, a startup that focuses on affordable health and fitness devices.

Many of these connected smart scales go beyond weight and can measure metrics like body fat, bone mass and muscle mass. This is all done through bioelectrical impedance, a process that involves sending a low, safe electrical current through your body. The technology has been around for a few years. It's not the gold standard, but it generally works for measuring body measurements over time.

The drawback to using a non-smart scale is that you have to remember each measurement or write it down. This isn't the case with a connected scale or "smart" scale. These devices include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to automatically send data to the cloud or directly to your phone. Your information can be viewed on your computer or smartphone at any time. But, there's a catch: the information generally gets funneled through specific apps.

With so many smart scales out there, it can be difficult to choose which one is right for you. That's where this guide comes in. It's an outline of what to look for and recommendations of top scales I've personally tested.



Scales tested

Fitbit Aria
Withings Smart Body Analyzer
Garmin Index Smart Scale
Under Armour Smart Scale
Pivotal Living Smart Scale

5 things to consider before buying a Raspberry Pi The Raspberry Pi is an extremely affordable computer, but there are some things you should know before you jump into the world of project boards.

Raspberry Pi computers are incredibly fun to tinker with and make it both affordable and possible to have a computer dedicated to one or two very specific tasks around your house.

The applications for Raspberry Pi are virtually limitless, especially with the growing interest in smart homes. But there are some things you should know before you dive into the world of Raspberry Pi.

The $35 computer myth

The Raspberry Pi is marketed as the $35 (£24 or AU$49) computer. At its core, that's exactly what it is, a functioning computer for $35. However, that price only includes the motherboard plus your most basic input and output connections (HDMI, USB, 3.5mm, power source, etc.).

The base price doesn't even include a power source. The most recent Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, requires at least 2.5A to run smoothly. Previous models required 1.8A and below, meaning they could sufficiently be powered with some phone or most tablet chargers. But most mobile device chargers max out at 2.4A, so you'll need to fork out at least $10 more for the Raspberry Pi charger. No big deal, right? $45 is still a pretty cheap computer.


If you don't have a spare microSD card lying around, you'll also need one of those. A 32GB microSD card is a solid size for the Raspberry Pi, since anything over 32GB might give you some trouble with formatting to FAT32. You can find a suitable 32GB microSD card for between $10 (£7, AU$14) and $15 (£10, AU$21) online.

At this point, you're already sitting at $55 (£38, AU$76), minimum. If you don't have a spare monitor, keyboard and mouse, you may need to pick up some extras for your Pi. Depending on what project you plan to use your Pi for, you could end up spending upwards of $100 (£68, AU$139) or $150 (£103, AU$208) for other connections, sensor kits or attachments.

That may seem excessive, and even if you only spend in the ballpark of $55, it's still dirt cheap. But beware the upcharges and endless accessories that come along with the Raspberry Pi.

It's a time investment

Setting up a new Raspberry Pi only takes a matter of minutes, especially if you purchased an SD card with NOOBS preinstalled. But if you're new to the world of Raspberry Pi, it can (and will) become a serious time suck. It's very easy to sink endless hours into a project only to hit a wall that leaves you either hopelessly trying the same thing over and over or wiping the slate clean, starting fresh and flushing 6 hours of work down the drain.

Personally, I find nights spending countless hours tinkering with my Raspberry Pi enjoyable, even if I get nowhere. I'll spend 4 hours setting up the Raspberry Pi and getting it just right, only to flash a brand new OS the next day.

Your use may be different, but don't expect the experience to be plug-and-go. After just a few hours with your Raspberry Pi, you're likely to be 20 pages deep into a support thread on a forum of people who ran into the very same road block you did. Their input may or may not be helpful.

It's still not going to replace your desktop



The new Raspberry Pi 3 is the fastest and most powerful device the Raspberry Pi Foundation has released to date. It comes with a 1.2GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 and 1GB LPDDR2 RAM. It's no slouch, especially compared to earlier Pi models, but it's also not nearly as powerful as your modern, high-end smartphone.

It's capable of playing 1080p video at 60Hz, making a great choice for a DIY media center. However, it's not going to suffice as a desktop replacement for most people. It's still painfully slow at certain tasks, such as loading web pages with the included browser in Raspbian or opening a simple application like Libre Office.

Anyone in their right mind wouldn't want to use a Raspberry Pi as a desktop replacement anyway -- it would be like stepping back into the early 2000s. But for the considerably low price, its performance is impressive and it's easily one of the best project boards on the market.

There are alternatives

Raspberry Pi may be the name you hear touted when talking about project boards, but there are many alternatives these days.

The PINE A64 was a successfully funded Kickstarter project that touts a 1.2GHz 64bit quad-core ARM A53 and 512MB DDR3 RAM for just $15 (£10, AU$21) or an upgraded model with 2GB DDR3 RAM for $29 (£20, AU$40).

The ODROID-C2 is only $5 more (£3 or AU$7) with a 2GHz quad-core ARM A53, 2GB DDR3 RAM and a Gigabit ethernet port. Or just a step back is the ODROID-C1+ for $32 (£22 or AU$44) with 1.5GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A5, 1GB DDR3 RAM and a Gigabit ethernet port.


And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are numerous alternatives, such as the Arduino Uno, BeagleBone Black, JaguarBoard, Banana Pi and, if you want something small with a bit more oomph, the ODROID-XU4.

Things are only getting better

The Raspberry Pi Foundation launched its first board in 2012. In just four years, the hardware has significantly improved, the price point has remained the same and the community has grown into a thriving and resourceful group of people who are doing amazing things with very limited hardware.

Now with a handful of options on the market, things are only going to get better. The hardware will continue to jump by leaps and bounds, software options are growing in numbers and the possibilities are growing.

iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2: Everything you need to know from Wednesday's announcements Dual cameras, weather resistance and no headphone jack. The rumors were true.

What really mattered at Apple's iPhone 7 event (Mario, of course)

Though widely anticipated as a rather boring update to the iPhone, Apple's September 2016 announcement event actually revealed some nice, if not unexpected, products. It started with James Corden driving Tim Cook to the event as part of Carpool Karaoke. Turns out some episodes of the show will premiere on Apple Music next year. (Corden hosts "The Late Late Show" on CBS

Apple's iPhone 7 is a familiar phone for unfamiliar challenges
Apple's AirPods may look weird, but they'll change the headphone market
Full coverage of Apple's event
The new version of its mobile operating systems announced at WWDC in June will be gradually rolling out to devices. Its phone and tablet OS, iOS 10, will be available starting September 13, as will the new Apple watch operating system, WatchOS 3. Here's what we knew about both new Apple OSes before Tim Cook even took the stage on Tuesday.

As usual, we were treated to all the big numbers: 17 million paid Apple Music subscribers, 140 billion apps downloaded from the App Store and so on.


Nope, there’s no headphone jack in the iPhone 7. That’s what you’re wondering, right? It doesn’t have one.



If you’re still reading, some interesting other features showed up at the Apple event. The day was dedicated to upgraded versions of the iPhone and Apple Watch, both of which feature new colors, are safer around water, and will have a surprise from Nintendo onboard. The iPhone 7 lost a headphone jack but gained new wireless “AirPod” earbuds and a second camera. The Apple Watch Series 2 is now more effective than ever at guilting you into better lifestyle choices. Everything is more powerful. And if you were looking for new MacBooks, iPads, Apple TVs, or VR headsets — we can dream, right? — then you’ll have to wait until next time.

Apple’s first news of the event actually came from its Twitter feed, which announced the new iPhone 7 before it ever appeared on stage. On stage, Apple made much of the new design, with Jony Ive stressing that the device has been painstakingly perfected to be as clean and beautiful as possible, and on multiple occasions the new phone was called the best iPhone ever made. Obviously, we've heard this before. But that didn’t mean the phone's official unveiling wasn’t welcome.

Both the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 and 5.5-inch 7 Plus come in the usual array of colors, with the added additions of the super glossy Jet Black and the slightly more ordinary Black. They have a 25 percent brighter display, with a wider color gamut for better color management and reproduction. This time around, the antennas are built right into the chassis, getting rid of those ugly lines from the previous two versions of the phone. Internally, the new phones get stereo speakers and a brand new A10 Fusion chip. And, possibly most importantly, the devices are water- and dust-resistant. But we get it: you want to drill into the big changes. Take a look below.

Goodbye headset jack
This one change will represent a major test of the trust consumers have in the iPhone. Apple announced that, in removing the 3.5mm jack, the included headphones will work over Apple’s Lightning standard. That means you won’t be able to connect your favorite headphones to the next iPhone without an adapter (which will be included in the box, of course). Phil Schiller argued that Lightning is already an excellent audio standard, and that the team behind it is showing "courage" by making the shift. It’ll be a little while before we knew for sure if this was a good idea.

Hello wireless headphones
To make the transition away from analog audio easier (if more expensive), Apple developed its own standard to allow wireless headphones to connect to the new iPhones seamlessly. Using its own W1 chip, Apple designed AirPods — or EarPods without wires — that connect to the iPhone without needing to pair like you would with Bluetooth. Beats has also developed two new headphones running on the W1 chip. The AirPods will set users back $159, and they'll have to wait until late October to buy them. The new Beats headphones will also be out this fall, and range from $149 to $299.


A non-clicky Home button
One of the iPhone’s most constant, iconic features is gone: the clicky physical button at the bottom of the phone. In the iPhone 7, the Home button is still there, but it’s no longer mechanical. Instead, like Apple’s new MacBook trackpads, the iPhone will provide touch feedback with the Taptic Engine. It’s supposed to deliver similarly satisfying feedback, with custom notification buzzes for things like messages and calls. Will it actually be as satisfying? We’ve had good results on the Mac, but it’s hard to say for sure.


A new Mario for iOS
Pokémon Go isn't going to be Nintendo's only big mobile game this year. Super Mario Bros. creator Shigeru Miyamoto took the stage today to announce Super Mario Run — a new installment in Nintendo’s long-running series. It looks a lot like the 2D platformer we’re all familiar with, but it draws some mechanics from mobile endless runner games, and Miyamoto noted that you can play it one-handed on the subway. There’s also a multiplayer mode of sorts, where players compete to collect coins on a map. The game is coming out by the holidays, and at least for now, it’s only on iOS.


A double camera with some new tricks

The bigger version of the iPhone 7 comes with two rear-facing cameras, but it’s not going to let you capture your favorite moments in 3D. Instead, each camera has a different focal length, allowing for users to pick between shooting photos with a wide-angle or a telephoto lens. The iPhone 7 Plus will also be able to do some software tricks using those two different focal lengths. One is called "software zoom," where you’ll be able to "zoom" in the camera app between (and beyond) the two different focal lengths. The other is called "depth," and it uses the differences in the lenses to enhance the blur of the background behind your subject — similar to what phones like the recently released Honor 8 are capable of.

Now, that’s just the iPhone 7 Plus. The smaller, cheaper iPhone 7 only has the wide-angle camera, but it is at least getting some upgrades from the iPhone 6S shooter. There’s a new 12-megapixel sensor, a new flash, an f1.8 lens. It also comes with optical image stabilization, and Apple says that its new image processor will use machine learning to enable better autofocusing, exposure, and color-correction. Apple made a lot of bold claims about the new cameras on the iPhone 7S, and we can’t wait to put it all to the test.

The second generation of Apple Watch

After releasing its first smartwatch last year, Apple is back with what it calls the Apple Watch Series 2. It has all the requisite specs bumps: it has the brightest screen Apple’s ever shipped — supposedly twice as bright as the last Watch — and its new S2 chip has a dual-core processor that’s supposed to be 50 percent faster than its predecessor. On the outside, you’ve got the same square shape and side buttons, but it now comes in white ceramic along with aluminum and stainless steel. It also includes some snappy-looking new bands, including a custom design from Hermès, and there’s a Nike watch model that’s aimed specifically at guilting runners into regular exercise.

The Series 2 watches will start at $369, and just like Apple has done for iPhones and iPads, it’s keeping the original Watch around as a cheaper alternative. The Series One line, as it’s being called now, will be upgraded with the same S2 chip and sold for $269. Preorders will start September 9th, with the watches coming in late October. And watchOS 3, which was announced earlier this year, will be coming to current Watch owners on September 13th.


Serious waterproofing and GPS
The first Apple Watch was splash proof, but the new Series 2 Watch is water resistant up to 50m. That means it won’t just help with the occasional spill — in fact, Apple spent time on stage encouraging users to wear the Watch while they swim, and the company will ship swim-specific workout modes on Series 2. This change involved sealing off every possible point of entry except the watch’s speaker, which is supposedly designed in a way that will push water out.
But the new Watch isn’t just about swimmers. The new Apple Watch also has built-in GPS, which makes it much more runner- and hiker-friendly — it means the watch can still find your location if you're in a cellular dead zone. It still doesn’t have a standalone data connection, but the new Apple Watch sounds like it will be a more independent device than the first one ever was.


Pokémon Go for Apple Watch
Did you think Super Mario Run was the end of today’s Nintendo news? Nope — the company is also announcing an Apple Watch version of mobile game and social phenomenon Pokémon Go. Granted, there’s already a Pokémon Go wearable that will let you catch pokémon and visit pokéstops. And the Watch OS app is more about spotting pokémon than catching them; you’re clearly still supposed to be pulling out your phone from time to time.
But the app gives wearers visual feedback that Nintendo’s simple watchband can’t. And it makes Pokémon Go’s egg-hatching feature, which encourages players to go out for walks, more convenient and accurate. Hopefully, there’ll be no more strolling around awkwardly with your phone in hand — at least when the app launches later this year.



iOS 10 is coming out next week

iOS 10 is officially coming out on September 13th, bringing the next major iOS update to users after spending the summer in beta. This release represents one of the biggest iOS has ever seen. It means particularly big things for Siri, which has gotten smart enough to handle image searches and handle transcribing voicemails. But iOS 10 shows Apple becoming much more open, with Siri and iMessage now opening up to developers. Users will also see more widgets and better notifications, and Apple has extended Continuity to include Universal Clipboard, which lets you copy text and images on your phone and paste them on your Mac.


macOS Sierra comes out September 20th

While it didn’t make an appearance at today’s keynote, macOS’s next update, Sierra, will officially launch on September 20th. With that release, the old OS X nomenclature will finally be put to rest. Of course, that’s not the biggest change to come. With Sierra, Siri will come to the Mac, letting you access things like files and email with voice commands. Even more important: the combination of a more mature iCloud and improved Continuity means storing files and moving work back and forth between your Mac and iPhone could be easier and better than ever — in theory, at least.