Wednesday 30 November 2016

Fitbit reportedly close to acquiring Pebble for a 'small amount'

Pebble smartwatch hands-on

After earning more than $10.2 million from its original Kickstarter in 2012, Pebble may soon be acquired.

Fitbit is said to be in “advanced talks” to acquire Pebble. That’s according to reports from Financial Times and The Information. Details aren’t confirmed, but it’s said that the deal is in the closing stages. It’s also rumored that Fitbit will be paying a “small amount” for Pebble.

Finally, it’s said that many of Pebble’s employees will join Fitbit after the deal is done, but any future production of Pebble smartwatches is said to be in doubt.

Pebble made waves in the mobile space with its original smartwatch, and the company has continued to improve its software and release new hardware since then. However, Pebble is facing stiff competition from the Apple Watch and all of the device’s that run Google’s Android Wear platform, and it’s said that Pebble has been having financial struggles as of late.

Have you ever used a Pebble smartwatch?



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Some Android users seeing new-look search results in Play Store

Google Play Store Nexus 6P

Google is regularly making tweaks to the Play Store, and it looks like another change is currently hitting users.

Some Android users are seeing new-look Play Store search results. When you search for an app and tap a result, you’ll now see the details of the app in a card. Scrolling down will expand the card and show you more information about the app that you’re looking at, and you can then switch back to the card view by scrolling back up.

When you’re in the card view, you can also swipe left or right to scroll through the other apps in your search results.

As with most other Play Store updates, Google hasn’t made any official announcements about this update. This update also isn’t appearing for everyone quite yet, so it’s unclear if these changes are only in testing with a small number of users or if they’re just slowly rolling out to everyone.



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Top 10 iOS Apps of November 2016!

We've compiled a 'Top 10' list of our favorite iOS apps to hit the App Store in November 2016. The apps highlighted in this video include Moasure, Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Scan Documents, DirecTV Now, Don't Grind, Filmborn, Icarus, Inscape, PhotoScan and Hop Swap. Which app is your favorite?



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GoPro Hero5 Session Review



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OnePlus 3 gets Android 7.0 Nougat beta update

OnePlus 3 hands-on

Heads up, OnePlus 3 owners, because you can now get an early taste of Android 7.0 Nougat.

OnePlus today released an Android 7.0 beta update for the OnePlus 3. With the update to Nougat, the OnePlus 3 will get new notifications and settings menu designs, multi-window, direct replies from notifications, and custom DPI support. Here are all the new goodies included with the update:

  • Upgraded to Android 7.0 Nougat
  • New Notifications Design
  • New Settings Menu Design
  • Multi-Window View
  • Notification Direct Reply
  • Custom DPI Support
  • Added Status Bar Icon Options
  • Added Quick Launch For 3rd Party Applications
  • Improved Shelf Customization

There are also some known issues with this update:

  • Android Pay may not work correctly
  • Some stability/performance issues
  • After upgrading to Android N, you will not be able to directly downgrade back to M builds. Our customer service team has a special build of Android M that will allow you to downgrade, but this will format your device. If you'd like to flash back to M, please contact Customer Support

In order to get this beta update, you’ll need to download it from OnePlus and then sideload it onto your device. If that’s not something that you’re comfortable doing, you may want to wait for the public release. The good news is that that update is expected to arrive before the end of the year, so you won’t have to wait long for the public Nougat rollout.



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HP EliteBook 1030

Business laptops are now so thin, light and durable that it's difficult to tell them apart from ones aimed at consumers. At 2.56 pounds in weight, the HP EliteBook 1030 is half a pound lighter than the new 13-inch MacBook Pro and there's a noticeable different when picking it up in a single hand. Better yet, HP's latest machine features most of the ports that the average business user would need on a day-to-day basis – including USB-C.

The HP 1030 decked in classic silver-and-black two-tone colour scheme, with the lid and base featuring a metallic sheen. The lid is absent of anything other than HP's logo, which is unfortunately the company's old one rather than the new one that is appearing on its consumer computers including most recently the HP Spectre 13.

Despite being relatively compact, the 1030 still has a classic laptop design and doesn't pull off any space-saving tricks like the Dell XPS 13 and its near-undetectable screen bezels. HP's machine still has that classic business laptop shape – including rounded corners and a tapered base that gets thinner at the front, MacBook Air-style. Simply put, it's gorgeous.

CNC milled from aluminium, the 1030's chassis feels tough with barely any flex detectable in its case.

Under the hood, HP has equipped the 1030 with a sixth-generation Intel Core m7-6Y75 Skylake processor clocked at 1.5GHz and backed up by 16GB of RAM, along with a 512GB SSD for storage. One of the 1030's leading features is that it operates without a fan. You won't be distracted by the whirring of fans (or indeed a spinning hard disk) – it operates silently at all times, which is definitely a bonus. 

Another highlight, the display, is literally one of the 1030's bright points. It isn't quite as bright as the one on the new MacBook, but it isn't far off – appearing equally as vibrant as the 400-nit rated display on Dell's XPS 15. We only had to use it at around 75% brightness indoors, and it's plenty bright to use outdoors on a sunny day.

On the left-hand side are a decent array of ports including a headphone jack, high-speed charging port and a power port. On the back is a Kensington slot, a HDMI port, a high-speed USB-A port and a USB-C connection for hooking up peripherals. Curiously, that USB-C port isn't DisplayPort compatible, meaning you can't hook it up the 1030 to an external display.

For that, you have to use the HP UltraSlim Docking Station, which costs around £189 (around $235) from HP's store and adds a multitude of ports including multiple additional USB-A and DisplayPort ports. It's a strange omission, as it means that, from the laptop, you're limited to outputting to a 4K monitor at 30Hz, or 60Hz at 1080p. Want to take your laptop to a colleague's office and work for the day on a high-resolution screen? Then you'll need to take the dock with you.

Benchmarks

  • Cinebench R15: OpenGL: 31.38fps; CPU: 3.12 points
  • Geekbench 3 (Single-Core): 3,188 points; (Multi-Core): 6,623 points
  • Battery test (1080p, looked video streamed over Wi-Fi in Edge, 50% brightness): 4 hours 30 minutes

We ran into no performance issues during out time with the HP EliteBook 1030, likely owed to the healthy 16GB of main memory under the hood. The score it achieved in Geekebench's Multi-Core test shows just how far Intel's Core-M chips have come. At 6,623 points, it practically matched the the 6,646 points achieved by Apple's 13-inch MacBook configured with an Intel Core i5 Skylake processor.

The EliteBook 1030 features a smooth and adequately sized trackpack, with a well-engineered keyboard. Its individually-backlit keys have sufficient travel and pleasing bounce which helps you type quickly and accurately. After coming from the MacBook Pro, however, which features keys the size of small islands, they feel a little on the small side. All-in-all this laptop is more than up to the task of allowing you to bash out long documents and use it as a machine for serious writing.

Early verdict

The HP EliteBook 1030 ticks nearly every box going for business users. Its sharp design and lightweight nature will draw the envy of your colleagues in the office, but it's not just a pretty picture. With Intel's fanless CPU inside, it runs quietly while offering performance on a par with a Core i5 chip (if you go for the i7 flavour of Core-M, anyway). Its display is pleasingly bright, and you'll have no trouble using its keyboard or trackpad daily. The only blot on its impressive showing, then, is that you'll need to use HP's docking station to use the 1030 at high resolutions at 60Hz due to its reliance on HDMI.



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XMG U727

XMG’s upcoming U727 is one of several SLI gaming laptops on the horizon, but how will it measure up to the competition? Acer’s ridiculous Predator 21 X will feature the new Kaby Lake CPU, but that’s not due out until 2017. So if you’re looking for a laptop that flaunts multiple GPUs, and doesn't come with the added bulk that water-cooling brings, then you might be hard pressed to beat this one.

Inside our test machine sits a sixth-generation Intel Core i7-6700K Skylake chip, which is ripe for overclocking. XMG’s machine, which is out imminently, is considerably lighter than the Predator at around 5.5 kilos (12 pounds).

That may sound a lot, but it's 2.5 kilos (5.5 pounds) less – quite a difference when you're lugging it around. While still the weight of a small child, it certainly feels and looks more like a conventional laptop than a wild concept machine.

Visually it’s in line with XMG’s retro 90s style. It’s industrial, black and therefore unashamedly trying to appeal to hardcore gamers. Encased in a smudge-resistant matt black aluminium, the lid’s design emits shards of light that look like glowing cracks in the earth’s crust.

These and the keyboard backlights are colour customisable using the inbuilt GameFeet program (we’re not sure what the name refers to exactly). For instance, when set to dance mode, colors flit across the QWERTY keys in quick succession. Coupled with the incredibly bassy and powerful speakers that sit below the screen, the U727's speakers aren't only fit for playing gamnes, they make the unit into a mobile disco of sorts.

The keyboard itself is responsive, and while the keys aren’t as deep as the Cherry MX setup as seen in an MSI GT80 Titan, they’re snappy and satisfying to use. The touchpad is a decent size with a small fingerprint scanner in the top left corner. There’s also a full numpad for all your shortcut and spreadsheet needs.

Two GPUs require two large power supplies, and the ones supplied are pretty standard for SLI laptops. Obviously they add to the bulk when in transportation, and from what we could tell, you’ll need both to charge it.

Connecting them up is easy as the two matching round connectors fit into a much smaller block that then plugs into the back of the laptop. It feels pretty sturdy, if a little clunky. But with that much power going through, something well-made and safe is appreciated.

One of the best features is the glorious 3,840 x 2,160 pixel-resolution Ultra HD (or 4K) display. Its anti-glare coating works a treat and the colours are deep and consistent throughout.

Along the sides are stacks of connectors, including two ethernet ports and a handful of USB ports, including a couple of Type-Cs, two mini DisplayPorts plus the standard headphone, microphone and an added bonus of both a line in and an out. 

In everyday use it seemed quick to wake up, but with that much power you’d expect it to. The machine we had was an early test machine with a few niggles to the fan profiles that will be ironed out before release, hence the lack of benchmarks in this article.

Early verdict

While water cooling is expensive and bulky, perhaps it’s the only way to get near desktop performance out of a laptop. So we’re looking forward to comparing the review machine’s benchmarks with a watercooled SLI such as Asus ROG GX800. Another interesting comparison would be to see what the benchmarks are like compared to an equivalent desktop. This setup apparently will retail at £4,415 (around $5,520 or AUS$7,400), which is by no means cheap but we have very high hopes for the U727. That's mainly because it could prove to be the right balance between power and portability in a GTX 1080 SLI setup.



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Google OnHub routers receive heavy discounts on Amazon

Google OnHub TP-Link official

We’re now well past Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but that doesn’t mean that the deals are done.

Amazon is now offering solid discounts on Google’s OnHub routers. The ASUS model is available for $105.99, a whopping 47 percent discount off its normal list price. Meanwhile, the TP-Link version is available for $115.99, which is 42 percent off its normal price.

One detail worth noting is that while the ASUS OnHub router is ready to ship as of this writing, the the TP-Link model is on backorder and won’t ship until December 8.

We haven’t heard much about Google’s OnHub routers lately, with the company placing its focus on its new Google Wifi mesh network routers. However, the OnHub routers are still solid devices with companion apps to help you manage them from your smartphone. So if you’re in the market for a new router and ease of use is a priority for you, these OnHub routers may be up your alley. 



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Moto Z will 'likely' get new Moto Mod to add Google Tango support

Moto Z hands-on

Lenovo recently launched the Phab 2 Pro, the first consumer phone offering support for Google’s augmented reality Tango platform. And soon, Lenovo’s subsidiary may offer a Tango device, too.

The Moto Z will “likely” gain a Moto Mod add-on to enable Tango functionality, Motorola CEO Aymar de Lencquesaing said today. "The tablet folks [at Lenovo] did a phablet and worked with Google, the Tango team, to come out with a Tango phablet," the Moto CEO said, according to PCMag. "Going forward, we'll have to address as a group how do we reconcile the products that are at the fringe? We're likely to to have a Tango module to basically enable the Z to have Tango functionality."

There aren’t any official details about this Moto Mod quite yet, so it’s unclear when the add-on might launch or how much it’ll cost if it is released.

Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro uses a combination of cameras, sensors, and software to enable augmented reality experiences. For example, you can use the Phab 2 Pro to measure a space and visualize how furniture will look in a room, thanks to a collaboration with Lowe’s.

The Tango platform is still young and it’s currently only available on the Phab 2 Pro. Adding Tango support to the Moto Z would give a boost to the platform by not only adding another Tango-capable device, but by adding a device that’s sold by the largest wireless carrier in the US. Of course, the Tango add-on will likely cost extra, so Google and Moto will have to make that Moto Mod attractive to consumers.



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Netflix’s offline viewing is a welcome addition

Netflix Download and Go

Streaming services on our smartphones have become new "norm" when it comes to media consumption in the 21st century. From movies to music to cable TV, the media world is your burrito for under $10 a month per service. There isn’t much to dislike about streaming services. Well, except for the fact that sometimes you’re confined to only being able to use it when you have an Internet connection, which could prove to be troublesome to the many people who either don’t have unlimited data plans or aren’t always around Wi-Fi.

But for one service, that won’t necessarily be an issue anymore. At least, not all the time. Today, Netflix announced that subscribers would be able to download certain shows and movies for offline viewing on smartphones and tablets.

The update has already been released, so if you already have Netflix downloaded on your smartphone or tablet but aren’t set to automatically receive updates, you should have an updated queued in your designated app store.

By the looks of it, it’s a very limited selection – but we’re not complaining. I can’t necessarily find a rhyme or reason as to which shows are able to be downloaded. After poking around, I came to the conclusion that Netflix originals were off-limits as BoJack Horseman, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Black Mirror, and several others were off limits. Additionally, popular TV shows like Bob’s Burgers, Trailer Park Boys, Gilmore Girls, 3rd Rock From the Sun, Phineas and Ferb, Once Upon a Time, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia weren’t available either.

Netflix downloads

What I did find available wasn’t too shabby of a deal for viewing on-the-go – especially for parents with kiddos. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m guilty of keeping the kids quiet on long car rides with a tablet and a favorite TV show or movie, so this feature is like an early Christmas for us. Home, Minions, Hotel Transylvania 2,  The Road to El Dorado, and The Prince of Egypt, and my personal favorite, The Gruffalo, are just a few titles that you can download for offline viewing. Some children’s TV shows like Sid the Science Kid, Barney the Dinosaur, Curious George movies, and LEGO movies are part of the line-up as well.

TV and movies more tailored towards adults proved difficult to find, at least going by suggestions in my feed. Benchwarmers, White Chicks, Curse of Chucky, and most comedy specials appear on the list, as well as a new favorite of mine for fall and winter, Fireplace 4K: Crackling Birchwood.

It’s a good start, though. One true drawback to Netflix’s new feature is that it doesn’t appear that phones with microSD cards have any advantage here, which is what I was really excited about. When you download a show or movie, there are no additional options regarding where to place the media. It automatically downloads to internal storage.

There are a couple of good aspects of the service (aside from the obvious aspect that it even happened) worth mentioning. Users have some control over video quality. The default is set to standard, but users can change it to high quality (although it does not explicitly state whether "high quality" means 1080p or 720p). Users can also download using cellular data, which is something that Amazon Video, another media streaming service that allows users to download some shows and movies for offline viewing, doesn’t allow.

Although the service is off to a slow start, Netflix has acknowledged that other shows will eventually be available to, such as Orange is the New Black, Narcos, and The Crown.

Overall, it seems like a sweet deal, especially for people who are already subscribed to Netflix as it doesn’t require an additional charge (yet – unless you consider the $2 increase that occurred earlier this year to be in anticipation of this, which it very well might have been). I know I’m happy to have it.



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Apple selling red iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case, other accessories for Product (RED)

iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case Product RED official

Apple has long offered Product (RED) accessories  to help fight AIDS, and with World AIDS Day happening on December 1, Apple today announced a few new (RED) products.

Apple is now selling four new Product (RED) accessories. There’s an iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case for $99, an iPhone SE case for $39, Beats Solo3 wireless on-ear headphones for $299.95, and the Beats Pill+ portable speaker for $229.95.

In addition to launching these new products, Apple will donate $1 to Product (RED)’s mission for every purchase made with Apple Pay at an Apple Store, Apple.com, or through the Apple Store app, up to $1 million. Bank of America is getting in on the action, too, making a donation for every Apple Pay transaction using its cards, up to $1 million. These donations will happen through December 6.

There are also 20 games that are offering limited edition Product (RED) content, and all proceeds will go to the Product (RED) effort. These games include Angry Birds 2, Candy Crush Jelly Saga, Clash of Clans, FIFA Mobile, and PewDiePie’s Tuber Simulator.



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When it comes to features, it's better late than never

iOS 3D Touch

Hardware is an area of smartphones, tablets, and other devices where similarities between companies isn't that big of a deal. When LG, Motorola, Samsung, and any other company uses a Qualcomm flagship processor in their device, no one says, "You're copying so-and-so!" Hardware seems to be a neutral space.

It's not really the same thing when it comes to features, though.

On a semi-regular basis, I see a headline, or headlines, that go out of their way to point out a feature that we may have seen on another device. And I'm sure you can guess that this is typically between, "This Android feature was on iOS first!" Or, more often than not, "This iOS feature was on Android first!" You can pretty much interchange as freely as you want, and sometimes even include Windows Phone/Mobile and/or BlackBerry, Palm, so on and so forth.

It's a vicious circle, really, and I have no doubt by now that you've seen it more than a few times over the years. And if you're anything like me, it's always been borderline annoying every single time it's popped up. I understand the sentiment in general -- there's nothing wrong with pointing out that a particular feature is also available on another device/platform.

The part that always throws me off is when it's twisted into being perceived as a bad thing. Like it's an awful situation for Apple, Samsung, Google, or whoever else it might be to throw in a new feature for their platform or device, simply because another company had that particular feature already.

This isn't a bad thing. Every company has a different rollout for their products, both on a hardware level and from a software standpoint. And every company has copied another company at some point or another. It's the way things go.

But this isn't a bad thing. Better late than never is how I look at it, because in the end it just means that, hopefully, the user's experience gets better. And I see that as a good thing. I don't even care if it's not a platform that I use. If it means that other people get something that improves their daily routine in some way or another, that's a pretty great end result.

But, there is a caveat here, and a pretty important one. Some companies out there are going to come out with features ahead of others, even if the other companies are working on the same things behind-the-scenes. The only reason why endless copying can be a bad thing is if the companies aren't doing their own thing, too.

It's about recognizing a good idea.

For example: iOS eventually added its own notification shade -- something that Android has had right out of the gate. But Apple put its own twist on it. Some will say it's better, and some will say it's worse -- but it ultimately comes down to the fact that Apple, technically, copied Google with this feature, but they changed it enough to make it its own thing.

And Google saw the inherent benefits of being able to long-press on an app icon and get contextual options that pop up. So Android 7.1, first seen with the Pixel phones, features this ability -- which is what Apple brought to the table with 3D Touch for iOS. Same idea, but different implementations -- but both are meant to improve the user's experience.

As long as the companies keep altering the formula a little bit, they can copy as much as they want as far as I'm concerned. Like I said, better late than never. What do you think?



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Moto E3

Motorola has consistently produced some of the best affordable smartphones money can buy over the past few years - and the Moto E3 is here to continue that trend.

The Moto E (2015) was a highlight for cheap phones in 2015 and scored 4 out of 5 in our review - we'd still recommend it to anyone trying to spend less on their handset.

As such, even though it's nearly two years old, the phone is also still present in our best cheap phones list (though no longer in the top ten). So it's a fairly safe bet that the brand new Moto E3 will be a solid budget option too, but does it do enough to really impress us?

Moto E3 price and release date

Motorola released the Moto E3 back in September this year, despite announcing the phone all the way back in July. Or at least it did if you live in the UK, but the E3 isn't currently available in the US or Australia.

The E3 is a cheap phone, especially compared to the Moto Z and Moto Z Play flagships from Motorola. It currently costs £89.95 (around $120, AU$155) despite launching for a little more in September 2016 at £99 (around $125, AU$170).

Moto E3 design

The design hasn't changed much for the Moto E3, but that's not a problem. The Moto E3 features a plastic, rounded back that doesn't feel premium but does feel comfortable to hold.

Compared to its predecessor, the Moto E3 is a touch more like the Moto G range - which is a bit more expensive - with a slightly slimmer and lighter design. It feels a bit higher-end than the Moto E 2015 and is a lot nicer design-wise.

That's likely down to its stretched-out look, as despite the Moto E3 featuring a larger 5.0-inch screen (up from 4.5 inches on the Moto E 2015), it's not as thick or wide.

The screen is a big improvement for the Moto E3. This time it's a 720p display offering 294 pixels-per-inch.

You can tell this is a higher resolution than the 540 x 960 Moto E (2015), and being both larger and sharper makes the Moto E3 a big step forward and a much better option than the last Moto E.

In terms of power on the Moto E3, there's a MediaTek MT6735P processor, which is a quad-core 1GHz setup, paired with 1GB of RAM.

That doesn't amount to very much power, and we struggled to get some high intensity games running smoothly on the phone. 

That said, Real Racing 3 did run on it, even though it didn't look as beautiful as we'd hoped, so you will be able to run most things just as long as you can live without silky smooth performance and high-end graphics.

The biggest disappointment with the Moto E3 is the space available on the phone. There's only 8GB included and the software takes up at least 2GB of that. 

That means you'll get around 6GB of built-in storage space, which won't go far at all. Though there's also a microSD card slot which can flesh that out with up to 32GB more - which is something you'll definitely want to take advantage of.

Software-wise the Moto E3 is running Android 6 Marshmallow - the stock version. There's no word on whether Motorola will update the Moto E3 to Android 7 Nougat, but considering Motorola's track record of updating its phones we are quietly confident you'll be supported for a while.

For connectivity options, it's a similar affair to the last Moto E, which was the first phone in the line to embrace 4G.

You'll have access to Bluetooth as well, but sadly there's no NFC, so you won't be able to make the most of Android Pay. 

You also won't get a fingerprint sensor on the Moto E3, you'll need to spend a bit more money for that added security factor on your phone - why not try the Moto G4 Plus?

There are some big camera upgrades on the Moto E3 though. It's got an 8MP shooter on the back, with autofocus and an LED flash, and you'll be able to record video at 720p.

The selfie camera has also had big improvements, as there's now a much more powerful 5MP shooter on the front for your narcissistic tendencies.

Early verdict

If you're in the market for a new cheap smartphone, the Moto E3 may be the best choice for you. At under £100 (around $120, AU$155) you're not likely to be disappointed with the phone.

The Moto E line has always been great, and these new little improvements should go a long way to help the Moto E3 stand out as one of the better cheap phones money can buy, just as its predecessor did before it.



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Netflix now lets you download TV shows and movies for offline viewing

Netflix app iPad

Netflix today updated its Android and iOS apps with a major new feature.

Netflix now lets you download shows and movies for offline viewing. The feature is now available as part of an update to the Netflix apps for Android and iOS, and it’s supported on both phones and tablets.

Offline viewing isn’t available for every single show and movie on Netflix, but there are a lot of options to choose from. That includes TV shows like Orange is the New Black, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Office, and 30 Rock, as well as movies like The Fast and The Furious, Jaws, No Country for Old Men, Hot Fuzz, and Kung Fu Panda 3.

Netflix download TV shows movies offline viewing

The addition of offline viewing is a huge deal for Netflix. With it, Netflix users can not only enjoy shows where they might not have an internet connection, but it also helps those folks with limited data plans to watch Netflix on the go after downloading shows over Wi-Fi.

To get offline viewing, go and update your Netflix app now.



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Alienware 13 R3

In the last few years, Alienware has introduced some uniquely-designed desktops with the head-turning Alienware Area 51 and space-compressing Alienware Aurora R5. Now, the space age computing company introduces one of the world’s thinnest gaming laptops yet with the Alienware 13 R3. 

The 13 R3 also sports the company’s new hinge-forward design, quad-core Intel Core i7 HQ-series processors and Nvidia Pascal graphics – making it a VR-capable machine. However, this 13-inch gaming notebook’s killer feature is an OLED display that’s so vibrant, it can almost make you forget about the $1,799 or £1,749 (about AU$2,400) price you’ll have to pay for all this beauty. 

Luckily, you can also get in on the ground level with a $1,199 or £1,249 (about AU$1,600) model with a standard HD screen. 

Design

Alienware’s designs have always set its devices apart from all other gaming laptops with more lights and premium materials. This year, however, the biggest differentiator is that  hinge-forward design reminiscent of the Dell Adamo

To get a 21% thinner, 0.87-inch (0.22cm) thick chassis, Alienware has moved the heatsinks normally positioned beneath the keyboard to a bump that extends 1.5 inches behind the screen. Alienware also makes smart use of the extended rear for full-sized ports, including HDMI, Ethernet and the company’s proprietary Graphics Amp connector.

However, the laptop’s extended, 10.6-inch depth and boxy shape makes it hard to stuff in many 13-inch laptop bags. It wasn’t until we tried our backpacks meant for 15-inch notebooks that the Alienware 13 would actually fit. What’s more, with the laptop weighing in at 5.8 pounds (2.6kg) – nearly a pound heavier than most 15-inch notebooks – it’s one dense package.

Despite the need for bigger bags to carry around this laptop, we dig the new design. The thinner shape is accentuated by an equally sharper frame, etching away the subtle curves of the previous model. Rather than looking like an armored briefcase from space, the new design evokes a much more modern clamshell notebook.

From the side, you can see the strata of this laptop’s build transition from one solid sheet of aluminum to another with soft-touch coated magnesium sandwiched in between. 

Alienware’s older designs would normally mask these transitions with metal that curved around the edges, but we like exposed nature of it, like a Manhattan apartment with exposed brick walls and wooden rafters.

One thing we do miss about the older model is the exterior track lighting. While Alienware’s larger gaming laptops come with strips of lighting along the edges, you won’t find them here. Alienware says it came down to making the laptop thinner or flashy, and it chose the former, as it would also help prolong battery life. 

Technically speaking, though, the new Alienware 13 actually features more customizable lighting zones than ever before. 

The keyboard is now separated into four distinct zones (one more than its predecessor) while the trackpad comes with a backlight for the first time on 13-inch models. Combined with the Alienware logo on the lid, stylized power button and the glowing branding on the bottom screen bezel, users can individually program these eight areas to show off 20 distinct colors complete with lighting effects.

Reengineered to the nth degree

Alienware’s new and thinner design is evidently different from years past, but beyond the skin-deep changes, there has been plenty of reengineering on the inside. 

This year, Alienware has introduced copper elements to improve the ventilation, which you feel with most of the heat being drawn away from the keyboard and touchpad. This is also one of the few thin gaming laptops that doesn’t sound like a shop vacuum while under load.

Alienware has also introduced a steel plate to reinforce its Alienware TactX keyboard, eliminating any bit of keyboard flex. What’s even more impressive is that the keys offer 2.2mm of travel that’s even more satisfying than some mechanical keyboards we’ve used. 

Likewise, the 13 R3 is the first Alienware to feature touchpad buttons, whereas the older R2 model had a press-to-click touchpad. It’s still no replacement for a gaming mouse, we never felt like we needed to dive for one whenever we were just checking Facebook on this machine. 

Side-firing speakers are usually a disappointment, but these reengineered ones produce loud and clear sound with enough bass to make them decent for gaming. What’s more, they sit up high up enough off the base of the notebook so they’re not muffled out when you put it on your lap. 

OLED? Oh yeah

We’re not ones to be easily wowed, but our bottom jaw was on the floor upon first laying our eyes on the new Alienware 13’s OLED display. 

Colors virtually drip off the OLED panel with a richness rivaling any production monitor we’ve seen before – even the new MacBook Pro’s P3 color space-enhanced display. And, as if that wasn’t impressive enough, the Alienware 13 also produces the deepest blacks that seamlessly blend into the surrounding screen bezel.

More than a few times, we caught ourselves lingering on Windows 10’s lock screen backgrounds just to bask in the saturated color and sharp contrast. Likewise, this screen elevates the quality of everything you look at whether it be movies and pictures or the black text of this very review. 

On top of being one of the most vivid displays, the Alienware 13’s OLED screen lends itself surprisingly well to games, thanks to a one millisecond refresh rate. That’s faster than the TN panels you’ll find on most gaming laptops and monitors, with image quality that’s prettier than any IPS screen – or even the Razer Blade’s IGZO display.

Thanks to the hinge forward design, the display also sits directly above the keyboard for a more intimate typing experience. What’s more, the screen now hovers above the rest of the notebook,tethered by two hinges, allowing you it back a full 180-degrees. 

Most gamers probably won’t find any use out of this wide degree of articulation given the laptop will likely either just be sitting on a desk or hooked up to an external monitor. But, the added flexibility could come in handy if you’re using the Alienware 13 laying down or sitting on top of a cooling platform. 

The Alienware 13 R3 starts at a refreshingly affordable $1,199 or £1,249 (about AU$1,600) price, and it’s a well-equipped configuration at that. The base spec includes an 180GB solid-state drive (SSD), Intel Core i5-6300HQ processor and an Nvidia GTX 1060 with 6GB of video RAM – the same GPU available on the highest-end configuration. 

That said, with only a 1,366 x 768 resolution TN screen and 8GB of memory on tap, you’ll probably want to plug in this gaming laptop into an external monitor and add more RAM to boost your gaming experience.

The $1,499 or £1,349 (about AU$2,000) configuration comes with a more agreeable Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution IPS screen, 256GB SSD and 16GB of RAM. You’ll have to pony up with $1,799 or £1,749 (about AU$2,400) to get the OLED display, but on the plus side, this also nets an Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor bump. 

Compared to the Full HD version of the $1,799 (£1,749, AU$2,599) Razer Blade, the Alienware 13 comes at a major bargain for nearly the same specs. Sure, this Alienware 13 model doesn’t include an Intel Core i7 chip, but a Core i5 HQ processor is more than sufficient, and you’ll save 300 bucks. 

Another worthy rival is the Aorus X3 Plus v6, which comes with a larger and sharper 13.9-inch QHD+ (3,200 x 1,800) resolution display, the same graphics chip plus a faster and unlocked Intel Core i7-6820HK processor. Although the X3 only comes in one $1,899 (£1,849, AU$2,799) SKU with a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM, it’s more affordable than an equally-specced Alienware 13 that runs for $2,099 or £1,899 (about AU$2,805). 

Performance

Alienware tells us this is the first time it has put a quad-core Intel HQ-series processor into a 13-inch gaming laptop. It’s a huge improvement over the dual-core U-series processors that proved to be a performance bottleneck for older models. The two extra cores lend themselves to much faster video rendering and powering through games. 

Additionally, the onboard Nvidia GTX 1060 allowed us to enjoy perfectly smooth rounds of Overwatch with deliciously rich colors on the Alienware 13’s OLED display. Gears of War 4 and Titanfall 2 also ran beautifully on this 13-inch gaming laptop, though you’ll run into problems with running certain graphically challenging games, like Hitman.

Now that the Alienware 13 has jumped onto the quad-core CPU bandwagon, it’s an absolute powerhouse that keeps up with larger notebooks, like the Asus ROG Strix GL502 and HP Omen 17. On the processor end, this 13-inch laptop scores just as well as Asus’ 15-incher, while the HP Omen 17 and Razer Blade pull ahead with scores in the mid-13,000s. 

When it comes to gaming on Ultra settings, the Nvidia GTX 1060 inside the Alienware 13 delivers a playable experience above 30 frames per second (fps). However, it doesn’t hit 60 fps quite as well as the GL502 or Omen 17 and their Nvidia GTX 1070 GPUs. If you’re fine with taking things down a notch to high settings on the Alienware 13, you’ll get much smoother frame rates.
 

Battery life

Battery life is one performance benchmark in which the Alienware 13 falters. Alienware told us it bumped up the capacity of the batteries from 51 Watt-hours to 76 Watt-hours. However, we only saw, at best, 4 hours and 30 minutes of use through a frenzied day of Black Friday shopping. 

We saw shorter runtimes in our benchmark tests, with the Alienware 13 lasting only an hour and 45 minutes on PCMark 8’s battery test. The 13-inch gaming laptop didn’t fare much better on our movie benchmark test – looping a locally stored 1080p movie at 50% brightness and volume – calling it quits after 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Compared to its predecessor, the new Alienware 13 offers disappointingly shorter battery life. Among its peers, the last generation Aorus X3 Plus v3 performs better despite having a higher-resolution screen and more power-hungry Maxwell-series GPU. 

We liked

So far, we’ve only seen a few OLED displays make their way to the HP Spectre x360 and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga. This is the first time an OLED screen has made its way to a gaming laptop – where it arguably fits best. The 1ms refresh rate serves up perfectly smooth gameplay all while displaying the most vibrant colors and deepest blacks we’ve ever seen on a gaming laptop.

We disliked

The new Alienware 13 might be thinner, but, thanks to that extra hump in its rear, this 13-inch gaming laptop was a tight fit for most of our bags. Another knock against this notebook’s portability is its short battery life. You won’t be able to venture far from a power plug with, at best, five hours of juice in the can.

Final verdict

The Alienware 13 is an impressive gaming laptop through and through. Thanks to the new quad-core processors and Nvidia Pascal graphics, it keeps in step with larger 15-inch and 17-inch machines. You also won’t find a gaming notebook with a screen that looks as good as this notebook’s OLED display. It produces unrivaled colors and black levels with a lag free refresh rate to keep up with the fastest shooters.

Admirably, Alienware has thoughtfully redesigned almost every element of the 13-inch gaming laptop around its new hinge-forward design. It’s hardly the first notebook to feature this design, but Alienware turned the thinner frame to its advantage for better cooling and sound. 

And, with a starting price of $1,199 or £1,249 (about AU$1,600), the entry-level Alienware 13 is a fine launching point for gamers even despite the barely HD display. Full HD gaming on this machine is competitively priced at $1,499 or £1,349 (about AU$2,000), and the OLED screen is well worth the $1,799 or £1,749 (about AU$2,400) price of admission.



from TechRadar: Technology reviews http://ift.tt/2gIkf3q
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