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Wednesday, May 31, 2017

IBM’s Watson is really good at creating cancer treatment plans

Jeopardy-winning Watson is getting better and better at designing cancer treatments. New data presented this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting show that IBM's Watson for Oncology suggests cancer treatments that are of...

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ASUS ZenPad 3s 8.0 hands-on

ASUS hasn't given up on Android tablets — its latest ZenPad looks like a decent metal-clad slate, though you'll need have to contend with the company's typically odd software UI.

Once upon a time it seemed like everyone wanted to release a cheap, small Android tablet. But unspectacular tablet sales — in part fuelled by the rise of larger phones — has cooled enthusiasm for the form factor among device makers. Nevertheless, Taiwanese manufacturer ASUS continues to push out Android tablets; its latest, the ZenPad 8s 8.0, wasn't included in its glitzy Computex press conference, but it was on display on the show floor in Taipei this week.

The physical hardware of ASUS's new ZenPad draws inspiration from the company's Android phones, with a slim (6.9mm) aluminum unibody accented by diamond-cut chamfers. Up top there's a glossy cutout around the camera module — otherwise, it's all-metal, with pleasantly curved side walls.

ASUS knows how to make pretty metal gadgets.

The ZenPad's button setup takes its layout from the ASUS ZenFone line, which is to say it borrows it (vicariously) from Samsung's 2014-2016 Android phones, with capacitive back and recent apps keys flanking a physical home button. The home key was a little stiff on the demo units I played with, perhaps a consequence of the pre-production hardware on show at Computex.

The display itself looks great, though — it's a 2K panel that looks sharp, and provides ample pixel density at a 7.9-inch form factor. The only downside, it seems, is the tablet runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chip as opposedo something with a little more oomph, and UI performance wasn't exactly fluid on the units I played with. The 625 is a fine chip, with an Adreno 510 GPU at its disposal, but it feels out of its depth running a 2K panel.

An Android experience more fitting of a device from 2013.

On top of that, you'll have to deal with ASUS's hodgepodge ZenUI, which is feature-rich, but inconsistent. It manages to copy parts of Samsung's older Android UIs, but overall remains a mess of different visual styles. Combined with the ample lag I experienced, it's not a great look — which is a shame considering how nice the physical hardware is.

(A side note on software: The spec sheet on the show floor lists Android 7.1, however the units themselves were running version 7.0. Make of that what you will; obviously everything's still pre-production here.)

ASUS ZenPad 3s 8.0 specs

Category Specification
Operating System Android 7.1 (currently 7.0)
ZenUI 3.5
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
RAM 3GB/4GB
Storage 32GB/64GB
Battery 4,680mAh
Main Camera 13MP f/2.0, 5-part lens, LED flash
Front Camera 5MP ASUS PixelMaster
Audio DTS headphone: X 7.1 channel surround
5-magnet dual speaker / Smart Amplifier technology
Display 7.9-inch 2K LCD with ASUS VisualMaster
Chassis 6.9mm aluminum unibody

At least battery life should be solid, with a respectable 4,680mAh cell inside the ZenPad's svelte body. Given the Snapdragon 625's reputation for efficiency, you're likely going to be looking at multiple days between charges, particularly if you're mostly using it for streaming and web browsing.

So the hardware is nice, the software is weird, and on the latter point, ASUS is still its own worst enemy with a bewildering loadout of branded custom technologies and features like VisualMaster and PixelMaster. Hopefully future versions of ZenUI will show more polish and restraint.

The ZenPad 3s 8.0 isn't going to be a major release for ASUS — after all, it didn't even get so much as a mention in the company's Computex press releases. What we have here is another commodity Android slate that'll probably sell for a fairly cheap price, before being largely forgotten. That's a shame, because with the right software and perhaps a little more horsepower, this could've been a promising little gadget.



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Uber's financials improve, but it really needs a new CFO

Uber has revealed that its losses for the first quarter of 2017 amounted to $708 million. Huge, but still smaller than the $991 million it lost in the last quarter of 2016. While the fact that it didn't bleed as much money as it did last year could b...

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Senators ask FBI to investigate FCC's alleged cyberattack

The FCC isn't exactly forthcoming with evidence of the alleged denial of service attack on its servers, and that's leaving some worried. Is it protecting privacy (as it claims), or stifling attempts to post comments supporting net neutrality? A slew...

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Silk Road founder loses appeal and will serve life in prison

The Silk Road network's creator Ross Ulbricht vowed to fight his lifetime prison sentence when it was handed down two years ago. But today, the US Second Circuit officially denied his appeal, sending him away for a long, long time.

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Samsung updating Gear Fit 2 with new and improved workout features, SOS function

Workout detection and post-workout feedback are getting better on Samsung's fitness wearable.

Samsung has just pushed out an update to the Gear Fit 2 right around a year after launch that makes a few solid upgrades to its tracking — because, after all, that is what it's designed to do. Building on the Gear Fit 2's automatic fitness tracking that auto-starts workouts when it detects certain sustained movement, Samsung says it has improved its ability to detect workouts.

For runners, you can now set custom pace targets for runs or set certain time or distance goals in Samsung Health to let the app build an appropriate workout for you. After your run is done, the Fit 2 will now give you a detailed color-coded graph of how long you spent in each heart rate zone over the duration. You'll also get more accurate information on a map of where you ran, right on the Fit 2's display.

Samsung has also improved its sleep tracking to give more details on how well you slept through the night, and changed activity reminders to give you some options for light activity instead of simply telling you to stand up. Finally, the Gear Fit 2 now has an "SOS" function that can be activated with a triple press of the home button to send your location and a message to specified contacts.

The update is available now through the Gear Manager app on the phone you have paired to the Gear Fit 2. Just visit the "About Gear" section to download the update, which comes in at a 47MB.



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Google's virtual museum tours tell you more about the art

Google has built tools to explore art since 2011, when it began uploading gigapixel images of classic pieces. The tech titan introduced museum floor plans and walking tour info to Google Maps as well as its Art and Culture app, released last July, to...

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Please keep in mind, approximately 22 Veterans a day commit suicide. I'm asking that 22 of my Facebook friends please copy and repost. 800-273-8255 Veterans Crisis Line

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The 'Wipeout' sequel you've wanted isn't coming from Sony

It's not a great time to be a Wipeout fan. Unless you're eager to re-play Wipeout HD through the Omega Collection, you don't exactly have many choices when it comes to hyper-stylized sci-fi racing. Take heart, however -- R8 Studios has released the f...

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Sling TV doesn't want you to waste time looking for shows

Sling TV, the live streaming service that lets you start with a core channel package and add on whatever other bundles you might be interested in, is revamping its Android user interface. The changes, which begin rolling out today, will be expanded t...

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Google's latest addition to Allo is custom GIFs of your face

It seems like Google hopes tickling your funnybone will keep its Allo chat app installed on your phone. The latest update adds selfie clips so you can add a personalized touch to your responses. Essentially, they're just looped GIFs made from a video...

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The world’s largest aircraft prepares for testing

We last heard about the Stratolaunch in August 2015, when Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's company Stratolaunch Systems announced plans for test flights with the massive airplane meant to help launch satellite-bearing rockets more efficiently. Those...

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Google beefs up Gmail security to fight phishing attempts

Google has just added a bunch of new security features in order to protect Gmail users from spam and phishing messages. Though they didn't say as much, the bumped-up protection is likely in response to the phishing scam that went around earlier this...

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Amazon's drone deliveries could include shipping label parachutes

It's hard to believe it's been almost three years since Amazon announced its plan to deliver packages via drone. The first air delivery occurred last December in the UK and the retailer continues to refine the concept with futuristic ideas to perch t...

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Amazon refunds $70 million your kids accidentally spent in apps

Last year, a federal judge ruled Amazon was on the hook for tens of millions of dollars worth of unauthorized in-app purchases made by kids in free-to-play apps. This week, the online retail giant officially started issuing over $70 million in refund...

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Apple reportedly begins production of its Siri speaker

Those rumors of Apple unveiling a Siri-enabled speaker just got a little more tangible. Bloomberg sources claim that Apple has started manufacturing the voice-controlled device. It might be announced at WWDC on June 5th, the insiders say. Just don't...

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Facebook clarifies its security settings to curb confusion

Facebook has picked up on the fact that everyone thinks its security settings are confusing. So, it has rolled out a redesign based on user research to bring some much-needed clarity to its security page.

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How to create playlists in Kodi

Use Kodi playlists to binge your favorite shows or keep the music going at your party.

Kodi is a great way to organize and enjoy all your favorite media in one convenient place. Better yet, it's available on so many different devices, from PCs and Macs, Amazon Fire TV to Android phones and Android TV boxes.

For the sake of this guide, we'll be focusing on Kodi for Android because we're Android Central and that's what we do, so we'll be using touchscreen terminologies (tap, long press etc.), but the steps should be transferrable across all Kodi-supported platforms. For example, a tap will be a left-click on your computer or a press of the select button on your TV box remote, and a long press will be a right-click or a long press of the select button on your remote.

Without further ado, let's dive in!

How to queue content to autoplay

Looking to binge through a whole season of your favorite show or have Kodi autoplay a series of videos like Netflix does? It's easy and doesn't actually require you to go into the playlist menu — we'll get to that later.

You're able to have separate queue playlists going for music and video content. We'll show you how to set one up using video as our example.

  1. Launch Kodi from your home screen or app drawer.
  2. Tap Videos
  3. Tap Files.

  4. Tap the source where you've stored your files. In this example, the media was stored on a microSD card.

  5. Tap on the folder containing the files you want to queue up.

  6. Long press on a video file to reveal the context menu.

  7. Tap Queue item.

This will add that video to your active queue playlist, which lives in the Music section of Kodi. You're able to add entire folders to your queue by following steps 6 and 7 with a folder instead of a file.

How to manage your Queue Playlist

So you've added a whole bunch of awesome stuff to your queue playlist but now you want to remove some repeats and re-order things. Here's how to find and manage your playlist.

  1. Tap Music.
  2. Tap the settings icon. It's in the bottom-right corner and looks like a gear.

  3. Tap Current playlist. This will bring you to your queue playlist and display the order of all the content you've added.

  4. To reorder or remove a file, long press to reveal the Context menu.

  5. Tap Move up, Move down, or Remove

How to save and/or clear your queue playlist

If you want to start from scratch and clear your playlist without removing each file individually…

  1. On the playlist screen, tap the Settings icon, the gear in the bottom-right corner.
  2. Tap save to save the playlist for later (you'll be prompted to give it a name), or clear to clear all items from the playlist.

Saved playlists will be found in the Music section even if they contain videos.

How to create a permanent playlist

The queue content playlist is great if you're just wanting to quickly watch some shows back to back or throw on some music quickly, but if you want to build out some playlists to listen to at work or for a party. Here's how to create your own.

  1. Tap Music.
  2. Tap Playlists.

  3. Tap New playlist.

  4. Tap Files to browse to where your music (or video) files are stored.

  5. Long press on the folder or file you wish to add to the playlist

  6. Tap Add.

  7. When you've added all the songs you desire and you're ready to save, tap the settings icon. It's the gear in the bottom-right corner.

  8. Tap Save playlist. You will then be prompted to give your playlist a name.

You can use that same settings menu to open an existing playlist for editing purposes.

What are "smart playlists"?

Smart playlists use a set of rules to automatically scan your music or video database and create a playlist based on the parameters you set out. To use these you must first use a scraper addon for Kodi to retrieve standardized metadata information for all of your media. This is a great option if you've got a ridiculous amount of music or videos and want to sort them out in different ways, say a music playlist of a specific genre, or a movie playlist of your favorite actor.

Here's some quick info on some reliable scraper addons for movies, music, and tv shows, which include links to their respective repositories:



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Android Pay hits Canada without the support of some major banks

You have to sympathize with Android-loving Canadians. While Apple Pay has been available in the country since 2015, Android Pay has been a no-show -- you've had to pay for your Tim Hortons donuts the old-fashioned way. At last, though, it's here....

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Sorry, Galaxy S8 users: Bixby voice assistant remains delayed

The Wall Street Journal reports we won't see it until "at least late June."

There are so many features the Samsung Galaxy S8 has going for it; it's almost bezel-less, it has the best display on the market, and it's a wondrous performer. But one thing it does not have going for it is its own virtual assistant. It's been two months since the launch of Samsung's big phone release and there's still no Bixby in sight.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung will miss the "later this spring" window it had originally promised. From the article, which is behind a paywall:

The English-language version of Samsung Electronics Co.'s new voice-activated virtual assistant won't likely debut in the U.S. until at least late June, according to people familiar with the matter, more than two months after the launch of the South Korean tech giant's latest high-end smartphone.

The report states that the reason Bixby is delayed is because the English-speaking version is actually struggling to understand its syntax and grammar. In turn, a Samsung spokeswoman told the WSJ: "Bixby Voice benefits from time to further enhance natural language understanding and we are currently growing our user testing in the U.S. to prepare for launch."

Samsung's Bixby isn't entirely useless at present. You can still use Bixby Vision for quick image recognition in the camera app. Or you can use Hello Bixby as your daily contextual feed. It's highly customizable, and if you prefer to have more immediate hooks into the apps you have installed, Hello Bixby is pretty good at that.

It's unlikely that the delayed Bixby snafu will affect sales of the Galaxy S8 and S8+. The two handsets are worthy sellers in their own right and it's highly doubtful that the record-breaking number of preorders were a result of the addition of a proprietary virtual assistant. Perhaps the only bummer of owning a Galaxy S8 at this point, however, is that there's this extra hardware button that isn't as useful as you'd hope. Fortunately, you can remap that button if you so please with an app, at least until Bixby's full arrival.

You can even set it to launch Google Assistant.



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Amazon Echo supports iCloud calendars ahead of rumored Siri speaker

Amazon's Echo speakers give you voice control over calendars from Google and Microsoft, but there's long been a notable exception to that rule: Apple. Thankfully, Amazon just filled that gap. The internet giant has quietly added support for linking...

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TweetDeck for your browser now lets you verify images via Google

Knowing where Twitter's images come from is a good thing.

With the rampant and almost revolutionary spread of fake things across the internet, TweetDeck has announced it's added a feature that lets you verify the source behind an image before you react.

It's easy to use: hover your mouse pointer over the image in the TweetDeck web app and then click the little magnifying glass icon to jump to a Google Search in another window. Google will fetch results related to that image and verify whether it's an original photo or a copied one.

This is what the search icon looks like on top of a photo when you hover over it with your mouse pointer.

This is what the Google Search page looks like after you ask for verification from TweetDeck.

The feature is not available for your smartphone yet, but it should be since you can view images through the Twitter app, too. It's possible that since the ability was originally announced by Twitter's own account feed, perhaps this is an indication that it's someday meant to be a part of the Twitter mobile app. This sort of feature could be greatly beneficial to those who only view Twitter through an app, or even through Twitter Lite.



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New York Times picks an AI moderator over a Public Editor

In a surprising move, the New York Times announced to its staff on Wednesday that it will immediately eliminate the position of Public Editor at its publication. The role will instead be filled by an expanded comments section -- one that is moderated...

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I bio-engineered glowing beer and it hasn’t killed me (yet)

I've been making beer for about 10 years and, in the name of fun and experimentation, I've done some weird stuff. Toss some sarsaparilla and birch bark in the pot? Why not? "Dry hop" with a box of Apple Jacks? Try and stop me. But I may have finally...

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WSJ: Bixby Voice won't debut on Galaxy S8 until late June

To hear Samsung's Galaxy S8 ad campaign tell it, the company's Bixby digital assistant was already fully featured and ready to go at the handset's launch. The reality is quite a bit different, however. Bixby Voice, the would-be competitor to Siri and...

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You can now buy an unlocked Galaxy S8 in the U.S.

Get an unlocked Galaxy S8 ... for a considerable amount of money.

After a few weeks of pre-orders, Samsung has fully opened sales for the U.S. unlocked versions of the Galaxy S8 and S8+.

Samsung had previously confirmed around the time of the S8's launch in April that it would eventually offer an unlocked model in the U.S., and now we have specific details.

  • Prices are $724.99 and $824.99 for the S8 and S8+, respectively.
  • They're only available in Midnight Black.
  • They will work on AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, US Cellular and most prepaid carriers.
  • They're available with 0% 24-month financing from Samsung.
  • Samsung is offering up to $350 off when trading in an old Samsung phone.
  • The proper U.S. unlocked model numbers are G950UZKAXAA (GS8) and G955UZKAXAA (GS8+).

Galaxy S8 unlocked

See at Best Buy
See at Samsung

Galaxy S8+ unlocked

See at Best Buy
See at Samsung

While Samsung doesn't have a great track record for keeping its unlocked phones up-to-date, the company has said that it will do better this time around. It's unlikely the carrier and unlocked versions will receive updates at the same time, or the latter with as much frequency, but at least there's hope. And buying the unlocked model does ensure there's no carrier bloatware, which is nice.

Are you planning to pick up an unlocked Galaxy S8? Let us know in the comments below!



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Take-Two nabs the rights to 'Kerbal Space Program'

The news about ex-Squad members leaving for Valve was ultimately overblown, but there's still plenty of drama in the indie developer's life: Take-Two Interactive has bought the rights to Kerbal Space Program. The move will turn the spaceship buildin...

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Fight on the moon in new ‘Overwatch’ Lunar Base map

Last week, Overwatch celebrated its one-year anniversary by dropping scores of new event-themed character skins and extras to the game. But it also added three new maps for the game's small-team and 1v1 Arena modes. It seems the title's team wasn't d...

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Gear VR streams to your TV thanks to Google Cast

For as much fun as you can have donning a VR rig and slipping into a virtual environment these days, it's still pretty awkward to watch as an outside observer. Now that Google has partially solved the VR spectator problem by building Cast into the ne...

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