Overall Findings Nest Hello and Ring offer basic smart doorbell features, such as video and two-way communication. Each has some unique features, as well. With Nest Hello, for example, HDR video is helpful for night vision, and the facial recognition feature is like caller-ID for your front door. The Ring smart doorbell can be installed on a door without doorbell wiring. This is essential if you live in an apartment or condo home....
The company just showed off a substantial refresh to CarPlay, the auto-enhancing standard that allows vehicular dashboard and radio units to act as displays and controllers for iOS devices. The new CarPlay ups the ante, giving drivers full control of various systems within the vehicle itself beyond playing music and following GPS directions. For instance, you’ll be able to change the air conditioning and other temperature controls through the app....
Actronika has banked on its years of experience in the field of haptics to create a vest-like wearable that enables gamers to feel real-life sensations in virtual worlds. It claims to do so by employing a souped-up version of a well-known haptic mechanism that it’s calling “high-definition vibrotactile haptics.” “When we touch an object, vibrations are propagated in our body and allow us to understand the nature of the surface or object with which we interact,” explained Actronika’s Communications Manager, Marina Crifar, in an email to Lifewire....
The new Kindles offer a larger display, a new adjustable warm light, and increased battery life, while the new Signature Edition adds an auto-adjusting light sensor and is the first-ever Kindle to support wireless charging. I’ve been using the new Signature Edition for a few weeks and the new features have left a noticeable impact on my reading habits. My aging eyes appreciate the bigger screen and the faster page turns keep me zipping through novels....
Researchers have developed a new way to make you feel what’s happening in a virtual world when you put on VR goggles. A device applies chemicals to your skin to trigger responses. It’s part of a growing wave of so-called ‘haptic’ gadgets designed to enhance virtual reality. “Humans typically use all their senses to understand the world around them,” Todd Richmond, a VR expert and IEEE member, told Lifewire in an email interview....
The Phone (1) is essentially just another Android phone, but it shows what can be done when you stray from the increasingly dull slab-of-glass design invented by Apple and copied by pretty much every other smartphone maker. And while there are a few nice design touches and features, the one that really shines—quite literally—is the array of LEDs on the back. “Nothing’s Phone (1) is said to be disrupting the smartphone market by revamping the modern user experience....
Nvidia recently demonstrated the photo method called Instant NeRF, which uses computing power to approximate how light behaves in the real world. It could transform your old photos into a video game scene, or it can be used to train robots and self-driving cars to understand the size and shape of real-world objects. “3D imaging brings a new world of transformation,” Oren Debbi, the CEO of Visionary.ai, a computer vision company that runs its 3D algorithms on the Nvidia platform, told Lifewire in an email interview....
The tips listed here should help you troubleshoot your Olympus camera error messages and fix problems with Olympus camera memory cards. Card or Card Cover Error Message Any Olympus camera error message containing the word “card” refers to the Olympus memory card or the memory card slot. If the compartment sealing the battery and memory card area isn’t completely closed, you’ll receive a “Card Cover” error message. If you believe the problem is with the memory card, use it with a different device to determine whether it’s malfunctioning....
If you’ve received a parse error and still want to install the app in question, you will have to identify and fix the root problem. What’s the Cause of an Android Parse Error? The parse error usually occurs when you try to install or run a third-party app on an Android device. When this error occurs, you’ll see a message like this: The error can also happen when you try to install an app from the official Google Play Store, although that is less common....
How to Change Icons on a Mac Many icon collections are available on the web. The easiest way to find Mac icons is to search on the phrase “Mac icons” in your favorite search engine. You’ll find numerous sites that offer free and low-cost icon collections for the Mac, including IconFinder and Deviantart. After you locate icons online that you want to use to personalize your Mac, here’s how to change up your desktop....
The beta version of Photoshop on the web is currently rolling out and will be accessible via an Adobe login. Users can create documents in the browser and collaborate with others on any image. This makes it ideal for quick edits and creation, and because it runs on Adobe’s servers, you don’t need a powerful computer. But what’s in this for Adobe? “Adobe’s marketing decision to provide a free browser version of their most popular product is the company’s way of ensuring that 90% of the world’s creative professionals continue to use Adobe Photoshop,” creative director Jessica Althaus told Lifewire via email....
Color Space in Images Graphic designers rely on two primary color spaces. A color space is a method by which primary colors combine to form complex rainbows of color. Use the RGB mode when preparing images for mobile devices. Displays on computer monitors and smartphones rely on a combination of red, blue, and green pixels. This RGB image is optimized to accurately reproduce the intended colors on a screen. For print, designers use a four-color process, where every color distills to a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black....
Eliminate Duplication The first rule dictates that we must not duplicate data within the same row of a table. Within the database community, this concept is referred to as the atomicity of a table. Tables that comply with this rule are said to be atomic. Let’s explore this principle with a classic example: a table within a human resources database that stores the manager-subordinate relationship. For the purposes of our example, we’ll impose the business rule that each manager may have one or more subordinates while each subordinate may have only one manager....
What You Will Need Utilities: To fix your hard drive you will need Disk Utility, which comes free with any Mac computer. Alternatively, you can use a program like Drive Genius, available from Prosoft Engineering. You don’t need both utilities. We tend to use Drive Genius because faster than Disk Utility. A hard drive: To what extent you are able to revive a broken hard drive depends on how bad a state the drive is in....
A new survey finds that almost all types of robots still rank poorly by people in terms of comfort. The study by AI software company Myplanet showed that drones and human-shaped robots were among people’s pet peeves. Manufacturers need to work harder to combat this robot prejudice. “One of the first and most pervasive trends we noticed in our research was a strong dislike for when our tech tries to be too ‘human,’” Myplanet founder and CEO Jason Cottrell said in an email interview....
According to SamMobile, Samsung has released an update for the Galaxy Buds Pro and Galaxy Buds+, which lets the headphones detect when you’re wearing them during voice calls. It’s the latest in a long line of updates that the electronics company has been pushing to its various smart devices, like the recent One UI 4.0 update on its smartphones. The new firmware version—R175XXU0AUK1 (Buds+) and R190XXU0AUK1 (Buds Pro)—is available now in South Korea....
5G-MOBIX recently held the first 5G autonomous driving public demonstrations at the Spain-Portugal border. The company plans to deploy 5G corridors along cross-border locations and urban areas to meet the coverage demands of connected cars. It’s part of a growing movement to use high-speed 5G mobile data to give automobiles new high-tech features. “The higher data rates and lower delays (latency) enabled by 5G allows communication of rich sensor data as well as real-time control between cars for greater safety and visibility,” Sundeep Rangan, a professor at New York University, who was formerly the engineering director at wireless technology firm Qualcomm, told Lifewire in an email interview....
Google has dropped quite a few new features for Android devices that add to what’s already available and even provide some entirely new options. And the list starts with new emojis for Emoji Kitchen and new designs for Google Photos’ collage editor. Beyond that, there’s Reading Mode, which is intended to assist those with impaired or low vision, dyslexia, or who are blind with customizable display options. Said display options include contrast adjustments, font types and sizes, and text-to-speech....
The most important Sim City 4 strategy of all is to build slowly. Don’t rush to build fire departments, water systems, schools, and hospitals. You’ll drain your initial funds very quickly. Instead, have patience and wait to add these services after you have a stable tax base. Here are a few more SimCity 4 tips to help you start a new city successfully. Hold off on Public Services Build public services only as needed....
While Skullcandy has become synonymous with budget-friendly headphones and earbuds, that hasn’t stopped the company from trying to break into the more premium offerings of the audio world. A few short months ago, it debuted the Skullcandy Dime, an affordable set of earbuds retailing for $25. Now, Skullcandy is aiming its sights at the quality offered by more expensive sets, like AirPods, with the Push Active and Grind Fuel. I’m more of a fan of the Grind Fuel than the Push Active, but both sets of earbuds offer great audio quality and features....
