Sep 26
Dr. Nasser Kurdy said he has “totally forgiven” his assailant.
Sep 26
Did you see that coming?
Sep 26
Smart speakers that house smart assistants have become quite the tech fad, allowing you to control your digital life with voice alone. Well, almost. If you are using a Google Home, you’d be painfully aware of how you can’t actually do one of the most important task of living a digital lifestyle: setting reminders. Well now you can! Or rather … Continue reading
Sep 26
US President Donald Trump’s “Modern Day Presidential” use of social media has undoubtedly raised a few legal questions and tested the limits of such services’ policies. Twitter, his favorite social network pulpit, has been thrown into the center of that hurricane. There have been calls for the social media giant to pull down some of Trump’s tweets that they claim … Continue reading
Sep 26
Welcome to Tuesday morning! Would you like access to Netflix on your next flight? You might get your wish. We also take a look at the biggest problem with Star Trek: Discovery — CBS All Access.
Sep 26
VIZIO M50-E1 SmartCast 4K HDR Display Review: An Amazing Picture for an Amazing Price
Posted in: Today's ChiliI’ve been a fan of VIZIO displays for a number of years, and have had several of their big screen TVs in my house. Currently, my living room sports a first-generation 70″ P-Series 4K display which has served us well for a few years now, offering up very good image quality, and great reliability. When VIZIO reached out to me to test their latest M-Series display, I figured that it would offer a lesser image quality than my high end 2014 P-Series, but to my shock, this sub-$600 display looks even better than the screen I spent about four times as much on a few years back. Now I know it’s unfair to compare a 70″ display to a 50″ display, but for sheer image quality, it’s amazing how much VIZIO’s latest displays have taken things since 4K UHD first hit the scene.
The M-Series 50″ display I tested was the M50-E1, which is currently on sale from VIZIO for just $579.99(USD), including free shipping. For that money, you get a razor-sharp, local-dimming 4K display with built-in apps, Dolby Vision HDR, Chromecast support, and much more.
Unpacking and setup is easy, and takes less than 10 minutes, including attaching the chrome leg stands, connecting to your home network, updating to the latest firmware, and configuring a smartphone if you want to take advantage of Chromecast streaming. The display has 4 HDMI and a 1 component video input for attaching cable boxes, DVRs, game consoles, etc, but is also more than capable of serving as a standalone entertainment system – as long as you have a high-speed internet connection.
Once set up, it became immediately apparent that image quality has reached such a point that even an inexpensive display like this can look stellar. Gone are the days of patchy, grey LED backlighting, replaced by rich, inky blacks, amazing contrast, and brilliant, almost hyperreal color. The photos below are only about 1/4 resolution, so they don’t do it justice, but definitely click to zoom in to get a little better idea of how good the image is. Also, ignore that vertical line on the top left of the display – it’s just a reflection from a window in the room.
Thanks to a robust suite of built-in apps, I was able to start viewing some amazing 4K and Dolby Vision HDR encoded content in minutes. Right out of the box, you get apps for Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Crackle, iHeartRadio, Vudu, xumo, Pluto, HaystackTV, and Fandango Now. Not all of these providers offer UHD or HDR content, but I tested out some 4K content from Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, and it all looked amazingly sharp on the VIZIO.
The display offers something VIZIO calls “XHDR Plus” which is a fancy way of saying that its high dynamic range is better than others on the market, with richer color depth, and more extreme contrast. Since I didn’t have another HDR display to run alongside the M-Series, I can’t say if that’s the case, but the picture quality sure is impressive to my eyes. Everything pops off the screen, with rich colors, and the ability to push out some impressive brightness while still maintaining contrast and detail.
Black levels are amazingly good for an LED backlit display, thanks to a 32-zone local dimming array, and VIZIO’s proprietary Xtreme Black Engine Plus. Even challenging content like the white text on a black background in closing credits is well defined, and with none of the blooming effect that earlier full-array local dimming sets displayed. Also, off-angle viewing is surprisingly good, with little drop-off in contrast or color until you’re at a really extreme angle.
The built in app interface is easy to use with the basic remote that comes with the display, and is fast and responsive. There’s also support for using your iOS or Android smartphone as an interface for streaming content via Chromecast. This technology has continued to improve and support more apps than ever before. Simply load up any Chromecast-compatible app, and you can use your phone to control the stream running on the big screen. One thing I did notice with Chromecast was that it took maybe 10 seconds more for the resolution to bump up to the full 4K, versus a near instantaneous 4K stream on the VIZIO’s built-in apps.
Right now, there are literally thousands of apps with Chromecast support, including everything from HBOGo to Google Play to Playstation Vue, and many more. There’s a full list available over on the Google Chromecast website. Of course you can hook up set top boxes and other video sources, and the M-Series does a great job with that content as well.
Overall, VIZIO has knocked it out of the park with the M50-E1 SmartCast 4K HDR Home Theater Display. Its picture quality, app flexibility, and great pricing makes it a fantastic choice if you’re looking for a new television for any room. For those interested in other sizes, VIZIO makes its M-Series displays in 50″, 55″, 65″, 70″ and 75″ sizes, with list prices ranging from $599.99 to $2499.99.
FTC Disclaimer: Technabob was provided with the hardware tested in this review by VIZIO at no cost. However, all reviews on Technabob are the unbiased opinions of our authors, and in no way represent the views of the product manufacturers represented here.
Sep 26
One of the recent changes Apple made to iOS and macOS is introducing a new file system called APFS which would be replacing HFS+, a file system that was previously used by both platforms. However it was recently discovered that Mac computers with Fusion Drives would not support APFS.
The good news is that if you do own a Mac with a Fusion Drive, you’ll be pleased to learn that support for APFS will be coming in a future update. This means that users won’t be missing out on the features and benefits of using APFS. This is according to an email sent by a MacRumors reader to Apple’s software engineering chief Craig Federighi, who responded by saying that support for APFS on Fusion Drives will arrive in a future update.
However Federighi did not mention when exactly support will be coming, which means that for all we know, it could take a while, but hopefully it won’t. It is rather strange considering that earlier previews of macOS High Sierra did include support for APFS on Fusion Drives, but for whatever reason Apple decided to remove it in later releases, and it did not make the final cut.
In any case we guess better late than never, and we’ll definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for when the update is released.
APFS Support For Fusion Drive Macs Coming In Future Update , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Sep 26
It is no secret that Snapchat is pushing hard to making augmented reality more mainstream, and for the most part it has worked as the app has gotten quite a bunch of new filters and features that take advantage of the technology. It looks like the company is focusing on pushing out more AR-related content thanks to the app’s latest update.
In the latest update to Snapchat, the app has gotten a bunch of new filters called “Sky Filters”. As you can see in the screenshots above, the filters do exactly what its name implies, which is that it changes the look of the sky. Users can snap a photo of the sky and then choose from various filters to apply to it, such as a starry night, stormy clouds, rainbows, and more.
All users have to do is point their phone at the sky and ensure that at least part of the sky is visible, take the photo, and then swipe through the various filters to see it applied. At the moment the feature seems to be more novel than useful, but then again Snapchat’s filters like face masks have proved to be extremely fun and popular to the point where its rivals, like Instagram, have copied it as well.
In any case the latest update to Snapchat should already be live so head on over to the iTunes App Store for the download if you haven’t updated the app already.
Latest Snapchat Update Introduces ‘Sky Filters’ , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Sep 26
Carriers such as Verizon aren’t strangers to making and releasing their own branded hardware. We’ve seen it happen with tablets, and with wearables being a popular segment in tech market these days, it did not come as a surprise when earlier this year in February, Verizon announced and launched their own Android Wear smartwatch.
Dubbed the Wear24, it marked Verizon’s first foray into the Android Wear scene, but unfortunately it seems that Verizon’s adventure was short-lived. In a confirmation by Droid-Life, the carrier has indeed discontinued the Wear24 smartwatch. The device was initially marked as “no longer available” and was later confirmed by the carrier to the publication.
It is unclear as to why Verizon killed off the device less than a year after launching it, but it has been speculated that poor reviews could be one of the reasons. Droid-Life notes that the average rating of the device is at 2.4 out of 5, and that one of the main gripes is the device’s speaker volume which is so soft that it kind of kills the point of it being a smartwatch that can make calls.
Buggy software and poor connectivity has also been cited as possible reasons behind why the carrier decided to can it. We’re not sure if this will mark the end of Verizon’s Android Wear devices, but as far as the Wear24 is concerned, this is it.
Verizon’s Wear24 Android Wear Smartwatch Has Been Discontinued , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Sep 26
Virtual reality (VR) seems like a good place and medium for entertainment, where users can play more immersive games, enjoy videos that make them feel like they’re there, and so on. However if you thought that maybe browsing the web in VR sounds like a good idea, Google has made that dream come true.
In a post on Google+ by François Beaufort (via Road To VR), Google has made an update to its Chrome browser where users can now browse the web in VR. His post reads, “The Chromium team is working on browsing the web in VR with a Daydream View headset, and the first set of features is available to try out in Chrome 61. So far this allows users to view and interact with any website in VR, follow links between pages, and move between 2D and immersive viewing for sites that support WebVR.”
He adds, “Users can give this a try today by navigating to any site in Chrome and then simply putting the phone into their Daydream View headset. This is just the beginning for web browsing in VR so stay tuned, there’s more to come!” of course this will require users to own the Daydream View headset as well as a handset that supports the Daydream VR platform, but if you own those then this could be a novel feature worth checking out.
Chrome Update Lets Daydream Users Browse The Web In VR , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
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