Hasta La Gadget!

A growing chorus of Washington lawmakers is now pressing federal regulators to do something about the fact that wireless carriers have recklessly sold off data that can pinpoint the locations of their customers’ mobile phones (and thus the customers themselves). The firestorm of inquiries began after it was revealed…

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China’s Xiaomi has become the latest smartphone maker to tease a folding smartphone, dropping the below video clip of its president and co-founder, Bin Lin, fondling the device on social media today.

The twist is the tablet does not have a single center parting but rather two folds that divide it into three panels, with Xiaomi claiming in a tweet: “It is the world’s first ever double folding phone.”

The video shows Bin contemplating a tablet-sized touchscreen device before quickly turning it on its side, taking it into landscape orientation, where he performs the party trick — folding two panels of screen, one at each side, back behind the tablet to form a slightly chunky looking phablet.

The video is edited so it cuts from front view to back at the moment of the fold so the actual folding action is not seen from the front. But from the back the two folded wings go dark after being folded.

When the video cuts back to the front there’s a slight spinning of the screen, as the software appears to grapple momentarily with the new form factor, before it stablizes in portrait orientation.

The phablet form of the device resembles the bezel-less “infinity display” design of a handset like the 2018 Samsung Galaxy S8 — albeit more squat looking than the tall 18.5:9 aspect ratio of the S8.

Xiaomi’s tweet teaser does not include any details about how near (or indeed far off) a market launch of the device might be. We’ve reached out to the company with questions about the prototype and any launch plans.

Update: A spokesman pointed us to a post on Bin’s Weibo account where he asks his followers for feedback on the prototype, and suggests Xiaomi is still weighing up whether to bring the folding phone to market, writing: “If you like it, we will consider making a mass production machine in the future.”

He also asks for name suggestions, saying Xiaomi is toying with two: Xiaomi Dual Flex or Xiaomi MIX Flex.

“This symmetrical double-folded form perfectly combines the experience of the tablet and mobile phone, which is both practical and beautiful,” he writes [translated via Google Translate], saying building the prototype entailed “conquering a series of technical problems such as flexible folding screen technology, four-wheel drive folding shaft technology, flexible cover technology, and MIUI adaptation.”

“We made the first folding screen mobile phone, which should be the world’s first double folding mobile phone,” he adds, again taking a tentative tone vis-à-vis a potential launch time frame.

In recent months a handful of folding smartphone prototypes have been demoed by mobile makers, including a booklet-style folding slab from Samsung — trailed as incoming for years but finally teased officially last fall — which also appears to transforms into a rather chunky handset.

An invite to a February 20 Samsung launch event for the forthcoming Galaxy S10, sent out to press two weeks ago, also included a conspicuous centerfold in its graphic teaser. Ergo, a commercial launch from Samsung looks imminent.

While, at CES, a little known Chinese OEM called Royole beat others to the punch by showing off a folder in the flesh. In tablet form the Android-powered FlexPai, as the device was christened, is 7.8-inches. But once folded in half the gizmo is left with an unsightly gap between the screen pieces, bulking up the resulting smartphone.  

Xiaomi’s triptych looks to offer a more pleasing design for handling the inevitable air gap created by a folding screen by concealing the ends in the middle of the dual folded panels. Side tucks certainly look more visually pleasing.

That said, two folds could mean a higher risk of screen problems — if the folding mechanism isn’t robust enough to handle lots of bending back and forth.

It’s also far from clear whether consumers will generally take to folding phones, or snub them as fiddly and gimmicky.

In recent years smartphone design has converged around a phablet-sized touchscreen and little else. So adding any fresh mechanical complication is a bit of a risk given how smooth and hermetically sealed smartphones have otherwise become.

But a clutch of Android OEMs are going to try their luck, regardless. And with a saturated smartphone market, stalled growth and competition fiercer than ever, you can see why they’re pushing the boat out — or, well, bending the screen back — to try to stand out.

It’s common to find Netflix on hotel room TVs, the app is pre-installed and guests can simply log in. Hilton and Netflix are taking this experience one step further by teaming up for in-room streaming through the hotel giant’s own Hilton Honors mobile app. Hilton’s guests will be able to log into their Netflix accounts and control streaming using the app.

The companies will be offering this experience in Hilton’s Connected Rooms initially. The hotel chain introduced this new concept for guest rooms in its properties back in December. Guests in a Connected Room will be able to control the room’s temperature, lighting, and personalize TV channels with the Hilton Honors mobile app.

This might be Hilton’s first deal with Netflix on this but it’s not the first time that it’s offering an experience like this. It already has a similar deal with Showtime which enables guests to access Showtime’s content for free through the app.

For Netflix, users will be able to log into their own account using the Hilton app and then decide what they want to stream on their room’s TV. Since they will be signing into their own account and not some custom version, they will also be able to access their saved list of content, pick up where they left off watching, and get personalized recommendations.

Hilton has over 1,800 of these rooms in its properties currently and will be rolling out the technology to “tens of thousands” of rooms across the U.S. and internationally.

Hilton And Netflix Now Offer In-Room Streaming Via Hilton’s App , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

It’s 2019, and ordinary beer bongs just won’t cut it. Gravity just doesn’t deliver beer fast enough for some people. That’s why we now have the Q-bong pressurized beer bong, a device designed to shoot beer down the throat of its recipient faster than ever.

All you have to do is fill the reservoir with up to 32-ounces of beer, pump the air bulb to your desired beer-pressure, press the trigger valve and get to chugging. Isn’t college fun? Now it’s a little less fun because it’s so convenient to chug all by yourself with no one helping.

Is it called the Q-Bong because some guy in British intelligence who invents gadgets for a living came up with this? I have no idea, but I can tell you that the guy in the video looks like Ryan Reynolds demonstrating this device. And just as I thought, he doesn’t look like he’s having a lot of fun chugging from this thing. Calling it now, this thing kills parties dead. Oh look, there’s so and so over there chugging by himself in the corner from what is essentially a juice box of beer. No one likes that guy.

I like how the video also cuts off right before he chugs. Because he can’t. Because he’s clearly too old for college.

[via Dude I Want That via Geekologie]

The freezing waters underneath Antarctic ice shelves and the underside of the ice itself are of great interest to scientists… but who wants to go down there? Leave it to the robots. They won’t complain! And indeed, a pair of autonomous subs have been nosing around the ice for a full year now, producing data unlike any other expedition ever has.

The mission began way back in 2017, with a grant from the late Paul Allen. With climate change affecting sea ice around the world, precise measurements and study of these frozen climes is more important than ever. And fortunately, robotic exploration technology had reached a point where long-term missions under and around ice shelves were possible.

The project would use a proven autonomous seagoing vehicle called the Seaglider, which has been around for some time but had been redesigned to perform long-term operations in these dark, sealed-over environments. ne of the craft’s co-creators, UW’s Chris Lee, said of the mission at the time: “This is a high-risk, proof-of-concept test of using robotic technology in a very risky marine environment.”

The risks seem to have paid off, as an update on the project shows. The modified craft have traveled hundreds of miles during a year straight of autonomous operation.

It’s not easy to stick around for a long time on the Antarctic coast for a lot of reasons. But leaving robots behind to work while you go relax elsewhere for a month or two is definitely doable.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to maintain a persistent presence over the span of an entire year,” Lee said in a UW news release today. “Gliders were able to navigate at will to survey the cavity interior… This is the first time any of the modern, long-endurance platforms have made sustained measurements under an ice shelf.”

You can see the paths of the robotic platforms below as they scout around near the edge of the ice and then dive under in trips of increasing length and complexity:

They navigate in the dark by monitoring their position with regard to a pair of underwater acoustic beacons fixed in place by cables. The blue dots are floats that go along with the natural currents to travel long distances on little or no power. Both are equipped with sensors to monitor the shape of the ice above, the temperature of the water, and other interesting data points.

It isn’t the first robotic expedition under the ice shelves by a long shot, but it’s definitely the longest term and potentially the most fruitful. The Seagliders are smaller, lighter, and better equipped for long-term missions. One went 87 miles in a single trip!

The mission continues, and two of the three initial Seagliders are still operational and ready to continue their work.