Hulu has fully reenabled picture-in-picture support (PiP) on iOS, MacRumors reports, which means half-watching network TV is once again possible for Hulu subscribers on iPhone and iPad devices. Hulu joins a collection of major streaming services that support the feature on iOS, leaving YouTube as the major exception.
PiP for iPhones was enabled for Hulu around iOS 14’s original release, but it was later disabled to “work on a few updates to provide the best experience for our viewers,” Hulu said. Now that the feature is back, users can enable PiP mode by starting a show or movie and touching the PiP button to pop the video into a resizable, floating player.
The picture-in-picture button inside Hulu’s app.Image: Hulu
Hulu joins services like Disney Plus, Apple TV Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO Max in supporting PiP. All of those services now either feature a dedicated PiP button like Hulu or default to picture-in-picture if you swipe to the home screen while a video is playing.
YouTube remains the odd one out. Picture-in-picture is not allowed in Google’s official YouTube app for iOS. Paying for YouTube Premium enables background play, but that only extends to audio on iOS. Google has also periodically disabled and reenabled PiP support for the web version of YouTube on iOS. As of October 2020, PiP was possible again, though it doesn’t appear to work as of today. Right now, only iPhones running the iOS 14.5 beta can do PiP on the web version of YouTube, according to MacRumors.
If you’re curious how to get PiP set up on your own device, check out The Verge’s guide.
Twitter has opened its audio chat room, Spaces, to Android users, the company tweeted Tuesday.
Twitter introduced a limited version of the Clubhouse competitor on iOS in January. While any users of Twitter’s iOS app can join and listen to Spaces, only a few can host them at the moment. Twitter said it was giving Spaces to “a very small feedback group” to start, with women and people from other marginalized groups given priority. Now, users of Twitter’s Android app can join and listen to Spaces as well.
Android folks, our beta is growing! starting today you will be able to join and talk in any Space. SOON you’ll be able to create your own but we’re still working out some things. keep your out for live Spaces above your home tl
— Spaces (@TwitterSpaces) March 2, 2021
The announcement tweet doesn’t mention when Android users will be able to host Spaces; it looks like Android users can speak and listen to conversations in Spaces but not host their own chats just yet. A Twitter spokesperson said in an email to The Verge that both Android and iOS users will be able to start and listen to Spaces “soon.”
Twitter has ramped up its forays into voice-based features over the past several months. In addition to launching Spaces in beta, it introduced audio tweets last June on iOS for a limited number of people, allowing users to record and send audio messages up to 140 seconds long — a nod to the original tweet length of 140 characters. It also introduced support for voice-based direct messages in India last month for both iOS and Android apps.
Twitter faced some criticism for failing to include captions on its audio messages for its users who are deaf and hard of hearing, but it said it would be adding automated captions to audio and video in tweets sometime this year.
Microsoft is launching its new Microsoft Mesh mixed reality platform today, and part of the announcement includes a brief demonstration of Pokémon Go running on the HoloLens 2 headset. Niantic has partnered with Microsoft to create this proof-of-concept version of Pokémon Go,demonstrating what might be possible for the game in the future.
The demo shows how HoloLens users could spot a Pokémon in the wild and feed it berries ahead of a typical gym battle with another player. There’s a menu that HoloLens users tap to access different parts of Pokémon Go,but Niantic stresses it’s not a dedicated app or ready for consumers yet.
“While this demo is not intended for consumer use, it offers an early glimpse into the future evolutions in both software and hardware,” says John Hanke, CEO and founder of Niantic. “We’ve only scratched the surface. We know the years ahead to be filled with important achievements which will serve as waypoints in AR’s journey to become a life-changing computing platform.”
Hanke appeared on Microsoft’s virtual Ignite stage today as part of the company’s Mesh launch. Microsoft Mesh is the software maker’s new mixed reality platform for developers, powered by Azure. It’s a collaborative platform that allows anyone to have shared virtual experiences on a variety of devices, and Microsoft is hoping it will encourage developers to create more mixed reality apps.
Last week, Microsoft’s Alex Kipman, the inventor of Kinect and HoloLens, appeared in my living room to hand me jellyfish and sharks. That might sound like I had a weird dream, but it was a meeting made possible through Microsoft’s new Mesh platform. I donned a HoloLens 2 headset, joined a virtual meeting room, and Kipman immediately appeared next to my coffee table, ready to demonstrate Microsoft’s vision for the future of VR and AR — or as Microsoft calls it, mixed reality.
It all felt like a Microsoft Teams meeting set in the future.
Mesh is a collaborative platform that allows anyone to have shared virtual experiences on a variety of devices. “This has been the dream for mixed reality, the idea from the very beginning,” explains Kipman. “You can actually feel like you’re in the same place with someone sharing content or you can teleport from different mixed reality devices and be present with people even when you’re not physically together.”
Initially, Mesh will present people as virtual avatars taken from the AltspaceVR social network that Microsoft acquired back in 2017. Mesh will eventually support what Microsoft calls “holoportation,” allowing people to appear as themselves in a virtual space.
You can interact with virtual objects freely in Microsoft Mesh.
During my hour-long meeting in Microsoft Mesh, I constantly felt like this could be a far-future version of Microsoft Teams. Kipman appeared next to me as an avatar and started handing me virtual jellyfish and sharks. I could reshape the animals, pass them back, or just place them down in front of me. Although we weren’t working on some grand design or 3D model, it felt far more immersive than the Zoom video calls I have to attend on a near-daily basis.
It was the next best thing to having Kipman in the room with me and reminded me of my first experience with HoloLens. Microsoft originally demonstrated HoloLens using a collaborative Skype call where a technician could guide you on how to fix some wiring. It felt like the promise of augmented reality, and Microsoft Mesh seems like the natural next step.
“You can completely imagine a Mesh-enabled Microsoft Teams, where the key thing there is, think about colleagues from across the globe collaborating as if you and I are in the same physical location,” says Kipman. “Mesh enables Teams to allow organizations to essentially do mixed reality gatherings with everyone in the same room and so you should think about that in a Mesh-enabled Teams-type of an environment.”
Microsoft is demonstrating Mesh at Ignite this week.
Mesh isn’t just an app for holding virtual meetings, though; it’s an entire platform built on top of Azure that Microsoft hopes developers will tap into. Microsoft is hoping architects, engineers, and designers will all see the promise of Mesh, particularly during a pandemic when it’s difficult to work with 3D physical models without all being in the same room.
Microsoft is also making Mesh available on a variety of devices, including the HoloLens 2, most virtual reality headsets, tablets, smartphones, and PCs. A preview of the Microsoft Mesh app for HoloLens 2 will be available today, alongside a preview version of AltspaceVR that is Mesh enabled. Microsoft is planning to integrate Mesh into Teams and Dynamics 365 in the future, which might help bring the unique meeting experience I had into a reality for more people.
Microsoft certainly thinks Mesh will be the next big thing for mixed reality. CEO Satya Nadella compared the new platform to Xbox Live during his keynote speech at Ignite today. “Think about what Xbox Live did for gaming — we went from single player to multiplayer, creating communities that helped people connect and achieve together,” said Nadella. “Now just imagine if the same thing happened with mixed reality.”
Microsoft’s Ignite VR keynote with James Cameron.Image: Microsoft
The big thing holding Microsoft Mesh back is the cost of HoloLens devices and VR headsets. While you can jump in from a 2D screen like a phone or PC, it’s nowhere near as immersive as using a headset. Microsoft has tried to bridge this gap in the past with ambitious projects like Minecraft Earth, offering AR experiences on mobile phones. That particular project didn’t work out, and it’s not clear whether Microsoft Mesh will strike a chord with users either.
Microsoft Mesh will need some strong developer support or offer experiences you just can’t get anywhere else in VR to pick up momentum. Microsoft has recruited filmmaker James Cameron, Pokémon Go developer Niantic, and the co-founder of Cirque du Soleil to demonstrate the promise of Mesh during its Ignite keynote today.
A proof-of-concept version of Pokémon Go running on the HoloLens 2 and virtual concerts certainly show what’s now possible with Microsoft Mesh. The reality will now depend on the popularity of headsets or Microsoft’s ability to market this new technology toward businesses looking to embrace hybrid ways of working as the world navigates its way out of a pandemic.
Update, February 2nd 11:40AM ET: Article updated with comments from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Google is making it easier to swap between user profiles in a new Chrome update that’s rolling out today.
Chrome profiles are nothing new — you can currently swap between Google accounts; keep personalized extensions, apps, history, themes, and bookmarks for different users on shared computers; and sync those settings between devices as well.
Google is rolling out a “revamped” profile experience. Now, if you have multiple profiles set up, a “profile picker” will appear each time you restart Chrome, prompting you to select a user or browse as a guest. Chrome will also prompt you to switch profiles or create a new one “when you might benefit,” Google says. And finally, when you create a new profile, you’ll be able to choose its color with a single click.
The new update also includes an expansion to Chrome’s Reading List feature, which was previously limited to the iOS app. Now, you can save articles to read later in the Android and desktop versions of Chrome as well.
Logan and Jake Paul moved to Los Angeles in 2014, at the height of Vine’s heyday, and not long after found themselves crammed into an apartment at 1600 Vine Road with other young creators hoping to make it big in America’s entertainment epicenter. Over the next few years, they became world-renowned celebrities (often for the wrong reasons), moved into gigantic mansions, and threw the types of obnoxious parties high school kids worshipped and neighbors dreaded. Now, years after they both moved into their own mansions in the wealthiest part of the city, the brothers have independently decided to leave the place they’ve called home.
“I think I got the bug that’s bit everyone leaving LA,” Logan Paul said on his podcast, Impaulsive, in February. “It’s the closing of one chapter and the beginning of a new one. There’s a lot of senior vibes around the house lately.”
They’re not the only ones, either.
YouTube is full of videos posted over the last several months of creators deciding to leave Los Angeles. Some are going back to cities and towns they grew up in to be closer to family. Others, like Logan, are finding entirely new places to live, like Puerto Rico. (Jake has yet to announce where he’s moving.) The exodus is similar to what’s happening in the tech sector, which is seeing employees at companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook move away from San Francisco to set up life elsewhere. Even YouTubers have found that, without a daily routine and places to be, there’s no reason to stay in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
“We came here on our visa a year-and-a-half ago,” Jasmine Saini, a YouTuber who moved to Los Angeles from Toronto with her husband, told The Verge. “The first six months were great. Then the pandemic happened. We just realized there’s literally no point of us being here; we can’t go anywhere, we can’t meet with anybody, we can’t network.”
Actors, directors, and writers have called Hollywood home for close to a century. But since the early 2010s, online creators have turned the city into their playground. Around 2014, the popularity of the shortform video app Vine helped convince a few future superstars to move to Los Angeles and start working with one another. Jake and Logan Paul (Ohio), David Dobrik (Chicago), Liza Koshy (Houston), Jenna Marbles (upstate New York), and other familiar names came together to collaborate and use the city to carve out their own space within the entertainment capital of the world. Certain areas, like the spot around Sunset and Vine — once referred to as Radio Row — attracted a sea of creators all hoping to become superstars.
By 2017 and 2018, creators weren’t just roaming down the streets of Los Angeles with Sony and Canon cameras attached to their hands; they were buying mansions and moving other personalities into their homes. Clout Gang, Team 10, and the Vlog Squad all started turning their lives in Los Angeles into an ongoing show for the internet to watch. More people moved to Los Angeles trying to ride the wave of internet stardom that people like the Paul brothers found just a couple of years prior. Then came TikTok, and hype houses became a staple. The messaging was clear: to become a superstar creator, chances are, you’d have to move to LA.
But over the past year, that’s changed. The pandemic has limited creators’ ability to collaborate, and going out to different locations to film — like a giant water park or hanging out with wild animals, anything that can be turned into an adventure — can be difficult. Creators say it’s removed their key reason to stay.
“It closed down any opportunity to work in LA, it changed the social life of LA, which is so much of what you pay for, and it’s very expensive to live in LA,” Brian Redmon, a YouTuber who originally moved to LA for acting, said in a November 2020 video. “I couldn’t hang out with my friends and so many of my friends were leaving LA.”
The feeling among some LA-based creators is similar to what many workers in the tech sector have been saying about why they’re leaving San Francisco for a remote-first life. Between March and November 2020, more than 80,000 people left San Francisco, according to SFCiti. That’s a 79 percent increase compared to the same period in the year prior. If there’s no office to go to every day, and working remotely works just as well, why spend the cash on expensive living arrangements away from family and friends?
Not everyone feels the same. James Rath was already contemplating leaving Los Angeles before the pandemic started and ultimately decided to move back home to be closer to family. But once everything is back to normal, he’s considering moving to New York City, which he thinks will be more accessible as a legally blind person. Ultimately, he still wants to be in a location with access to potential collaborators.
“Creators have adapted very well in this new remote-working world, but I think there is a longing for in-person collaborations and as soon as it’s safe to do so, either creative will return to the city or new ones will emerge looking for the same opportunities as before,” Rath told The Verge.
Not everyone is leaving Los Angeles, of course. David Dobrik just bought a $9.5 million mansion in Sherman Oaks. Los Angeles is still home to the entertainment industry, and there will eventually be a post-COVID world where things return to some form of normalcy. For people trying to break into the industry or find their place within that world, not being in Los Angeles can be career-ending. Almost every creator in videos watched by The Verge said the same thing: they could end up back in LA.
But for others, Los Angeles will always be a plane right away. Jasmine and Harjit Bhandal realized they could be home with their families in Toronto and fly out to LA when they needed to in a post-pandemic world. The decision to move was a little easier after three members of Harjit’s family came down with COVID-19, and two wound up really sick. With a built-in subscriber base and contacts already made in Los Angeles, this was the perfect time to go home.
“Collabs are happening less and less, and I feel like YouTube has definitely changed,” Jasmine said. “We’re paying a ridiculous amount of money for rent, where it’s just the two of us and our dogs. We don’t have anybody else. It just makes more sense to go home. Especially since everyone realized that you can really do anything online.”
If you’re moving from LastPass (or another password manager you’re dissatisfied with), you may be tempted to simply go with the password manager that comes with your browser or operating system. It’s certainly an easy solution, and a reasonable one, depending on your point of view. Until recently, third-party password managers were known to be more secure, but Apple and Google have been working to make their built-in password managers more secure, while Microsoft is adding one to its authenticator app. So it could be a viable choice.
One way, however, that these built-in password managers don’t stand up to their independent competitors is how tricky it can be to get preexisting passwords into their systems.
If you tend to hang out in the Google ecosystem and / or you have an Android mobile device, that means you can be using the Google Password Manager to store and synch your passwords via the Chrome browser. Unfortunately, like Apple’s Safari, Google Chrome makes it extremely difficult to import passwords from a CSV file.
The only way to do it that I could find was to try to enable a disabled Chrome feature that allows you to import passwords. After searching online, I found several methods to enable it, depending on which version of Chrome you’re running. I am currently running version 88, and while I was able to use the following method to add the import command to Chrome (thank you to Guiding Tech for pointing me toward this possible solution), my copy of Chrome was never able to actually import the CSV file I had downloaded from LastPass.
Be that as it may, here is the process I used. Perhaps you’ll have more luck. I’ll let you know how I finally managed to get my passwords into Chrome right afterward.
In Chrome’s top address bar, type in chrome://flags. This will bring you to the Experiments page.
In the “Search flags” box on top, type in “password import.” (Probably just typing “password” will be enough.)
In Chrome’s Experiments page, you can enable the Import feature.
Find “Password import” and click on the drop-down menu on the left (it will probably be labeled “Default”). Select “Enabled.”
Select “Relaunch.”
Now that you’ve added the import function, go to to your Chrome Settings (by selecting the three dots in the upper right corner and choosing “Settings”).
Find “Passwords” (which will be in the “Autofill” category) and click on the arrow on the right.
Look for “Saved Passwords,” and click on the three dots on the right. You should see a drop-down that includes the selection “Import.”
Chrome should now have an Import selection under Saved Passwords.
Click on “Import.” You’ll be able to select a CSV file from your file manager — and hopefully, import your passwords.
If that works for you — great! If not, then there is a last desperate way to get your passwords into Chrome, which is the one that finally worked for me.
Download Firefox (if you don’t have it already) and start it up.
Click on the three lines in the upper right corner and select “Logins and Passwords.”
Click on the three dots in the upper right corner and select “Import from a File.”
Select your CSV file and import it.
Firefox has no qualms about importing a CSV password file.
Now that your passwords are in Firefox, you can transfer them easily to Chrome:
In Chrome, click on the three dots in the upper right corner and go to “Bookmarks” > “Import Bookmarks and Settings.”
Select Mozilla Firefox in the drop-down menu, select “Passwords” (and “Autofill form data” if you had any), and click on “Import.”
Chrome has no problem importing passwords from rival browsers.
That (phew!) should do it! But if you don’t want to go through all that, there are always free alternative password managers that you can try.
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Cinematic first-person view or FPV drones have been a growing trend in the drone industry for a few years. Now the world’s biggest consumer drone maker, DJI, is hopping on that wave with its first FPV drone.
The new FPV (yup, it’s just called the FPV) drone is bundled together with DJI’s goggles and a new controller for the price of $1,299. That price is steep if you’re considering this as your starter FPV drone, but it’s quite comparable with the rest of the drones on the market, which are often sold with controllers, goggles, or cameras.
DJI believes this drone will be suitable for FPV professionals and also newcomers, like myself, who have been flying “standard” drones but are now ready to make that step into the FPV world. I’ve dedicated a large part of my last two weeks to see if it’s able to live up to either of those ambitions.
The FPV has a fixed, super wide-angle camera on the front.
FPV design and hardware
If this review is your first introduction to FPV drones, here’s how they are different from a typical drone. For starters, an FPV drone requires special goggles for full flight immersion. (That’s what gives you that “first person” view.) The camera is usually locked in one position and unlike standard camera drones, it doesn’t aim to stay stabilized and leveled with the horizon. And most importantly, every FPV pilot will tell you that FPV drones are way more fun to fly. And they’d be right. The drones are more responsive in the air and they move at hair-raising speeds. They can also be much more challenging to fly.
For DJI’s first foray into the FPV world, the company is betting on simplicity. There’s no need to know how to build your own drone, calibrate motors, get the transmitters right, and so forth. It really is as “plug & play” as it gets. The drone establishes connection with the controller and the goggles automatically, and you’re ready to fly.
The drone is slightly heavier than most FPV drones due to its hefty battery. That battery is also a big selling point for DJI as it enables 20-minute flight times. If you’re used to Mavics, Phantoms, or Parrots, this would be considered short. But compared to FPV drones, this is a significant upgrade from typical flight time, which varies from three minutes for miniature drones to around 10 minutes for larger FPVs. It’s also DJI’s “intelligent battery,” meaning it discharges after a few days when not in use to maximize its life span and avoid swelling.
The FPV shares the same 1/2.3-inch sensor as the $450 Mini 2, which is mostly a good thing. It won’t match the capabilities of DJI’s more advanced photo and video-focused drones, however.The FPV’s camera performs well in daylight but starts showing its downsides in darker environments by muddying details with lots of noise. The FPV can film 4K at 60fps instead of the 24fps on the Mini 2 — perfect for slowing down footage for those thrilling close calls. And if you want it even slower, you can also shoot up to 120fps at 1080p.
The camera is mounted on a one-axis gimbal and it has a super-wide view of 150 degrees compared to the 83 degrees you get on a Mini 2. It’s so wide you can see the ends of your propellers in your footage, which is great for gauging how close you are to certain obstacles while flying, but it’s not great for the overall aesthetic in your final clip. You can easily remove it in post or apply lens correction in the menu in the goggles, which will also get rid of heavily distorted edges. Part of me wishes there were a better camera here, especially at this price, but I get it — it’s DJI’s first FPV drone and if it ends up being successful, it’s safe to assume we’ll see a more diverse lineup in the future.
The FPV kit comes with the drone, goggles, and controller.
But the biggest difference between DJI’s FPV and most other FPVs is the image transmission. DJI’s FPV drone is relying on digital transmission, which it introduced in the summer of 2019. Most starter FPV drones use analog transmission.
The downside of analog transmission is that it doesn’t allow for long distance flying. But the upside is analog transmission has very low latency, which takes precedence over range. Fortunately, DJI is using its OcuSync technology here, and from my experience over the past few weeks, it’s been great. At a few points, I noticed some sort of interference with the image where I’d have to come to a stop and wait a few beats before I’d continue flying, but for the most part it has been smooth sailing.
The goggles themselves were first introduced in 2020 for use with custom FPV drones along with the DJI Air Unit, a camera for digital transmission. There’s a five-directional joystick on top, a back button, and a record button. The displays have 810p resolution and the preview image in the goggles looks very crisp and detailed, which is important when you need to avoid branches in your flight path. The design gives me a very Christopher Nolan Batman-esque vibe from it. I can’t help feeling like an idiot wearing them, but my colleague Dieter said it looks badass, so I’ll trust him on that one.
Lastly, there’s a new controller that is about half the size of other standard FPV controllers. DJI has also developed an optional $199 motion controller, which I didn’t have time to test for this review. I am more comfortable with a standard controller at this point, but the motion controller could be a great option for beginners. There is one very annoying thing about both controllers and it’s that neither charge with USB-C to USB-C cables, just USB-A to USB-C; it’s infuriating.
As mentioned, this whole kit will cost you $1,299. Compared to some other options, you can definitely get away with spending a lot less until you feel more comfortable flying FPV. Emax makes some of the best Tinyhawk beginner FPVs, and its kits start at $99. But if you’re at a level where you already feel comfortable flying, I think this price is comparable to what’s out there.
DJI’s FPV drone isn’t exactly portable, but taking the propellers off might help.
Flying the FPV drone
There are three modes you can fly this drone in: normal, sport, and manual.
Normal is similar to how you’d fly any other drone. It has auto-leveling and will maintain its altitude by itself. The speed is capped at 31 mph and it’s suitable for beginners. Sport mode is a simplified FPV mode and a lot faster than normal mode with speeds up to 60 mph. The drone will still auto-level itself and hold its altitude in the sport mode.
Then there is the manual mode, which allows you to do the fun FPV things, like flips and rolls. It can reach speeds up to 97 mph and it accelerates from 0–60 mph in two seconds. In this mode, you have to take control of your throttle and maintain the drone’s positioning at all times. In the FPV world, this mode is called “Acro” and it really takes hundreds and thousands of hours to get comfortable with it.
I want to stress this again: this was my first time flying an FPV drone. I always had an interest in it, especially when I saw what FPV racers transitioning into the cinematic FPV world can do with these drones. DJI isn’t aiming this drone at racers but for people either comfortable with FPVs or trying to make that step into the FPV world but are discouraged by the DIY aspect of it all. That’s not to say you can’t have fun with other modes. In my two weeks with it, I’ve been making baby steps getting more comfortable with manual mode, but I’m fully aware of how much more time I need to invest practicing first.
Instead of showing you my amateurish skills, I decided to hand this drone to Reza Kurniawan, an actual professional FPV pilot, so be sure to watch the video review above to see what professionals are capable of doing with the DJI FPV.
The FPV has obstacle avoidance sensors at the front, but they only work in normal mode. Once the drone senses an obstacle nearby, it will gradually slow down so you have time to react to it. The sensors are a lot less sensitive than what you might be used to if you’re coming from the Mavic series. And they won’t engage in the other two modes, which leads to how I crashed this drone.
In case you lose control or need to come to a full stop, there is an emergency button on the controller, but I didn’t have time to press it, unfortunately. I went around a tree without knowing what was on the other side and clipped one of the branches which sent the drone into a spiraling free fall. I expected the motors to turn themselves off after impact, as a standard drone’s auto shutoff feature would do, but instead the FPV kept “ramming” itself into the ground. DJI tells me that shouldn’t be the case. Hopefully it’s just an early software bug, but it’s a pretty serious one nonetheless.
If you’re like me and wreck this drone, you can replace the following items yourself: the top housing shell, propellers, the gimbal / camera module, and the arms. I had to replace most things myself, except the gimbal and the arm. All of the replaceable parts can be ordered from DJI directly. The FPV kit comes with an extra top housing and extra propellers, which you should definitely keep around. But if you need even more spares, propellers cost $15 each, while the top runs $15. Each arm costs $19 and the camera module costs $129.
The FPV doesn’t fold down like DJI’s other consumer drones.
Overall, the drone feels extremely responsive. For someone who loves the Mini 2 because of its size and how it feels in the air especially in sport mode, the transition to FPV wasn’t actually that daunting. I’m nowhere near the level I want to be, but my initial anxiousness disappeared rather quickly. Too quickly, actually. Switching to fully manual mode brought that anxiety right back.
Despite all that, I have to admit, I’m completely hooked. Every time I walk around the city or go anywhere now, all I can think about is where I can fly this drone and which little nooks I can try to squeeze it through and so on. But I’m hooked more into the idea of flying any FPV, not specifically this model.
The FPV is too pricey for it to be a starter first-person drone. But DJI included some of its best tech in it, which makes it perform very well. It is such a simple system to use and for a newcomer, it is much more approachable than some of the other options out there. DJI is also introducing a flight simulator built into the app (accessible through the goggles), but it wasn’t available during my testing. I strongly recommend any newcomers to spend more time practicing in simulators. There are many available on Mac, Windows, and Steam.
Then there are the standard issues when it comes to any drone: laws in your country; the area you live in and how much use you’ll get out of it; the need for a few more batteries (each battery is $149), which pushes the total price up. This also isn’t really a portable system: it’s big and bulky and oddly doesn’t come with a carrying case, so you’ll want to buy something like a Pelican case for it.
If you have a familiarity with FPV drones, I think you can’t go wrong with the DJI FPV. Whether you like it or not it will largely depend on your preference — do you like mounting a GoPro instead of the built-in DJI camera, or you just enjoy the DIY aspect of it all and want to customize your quads to your liking? For me, it has been an absolute blast to fly this around and, yes, sometimes it’s been sort of stressful. But for many of you, myself included, it might be worth spending a bit more time in FPV simulators before spending too much on the whole kit. Once I feel ready, DJI FPV will be on the top of my list.
The Android Google TV app could soon be getting a built-in remote control for Android TVs, XDA Developers reports. The unreleased feature was discovered in the code for version 4.25 of the Android app. Enabling the feature reveals an apparently unfinished interface built around a large D-pad, and the option to pair the app with an Android TV device using a 4-digit PIN.
The discovery of the new code coincides with a renewed push from Google to update and modernize its smart TV software. Last year it launched a Chromecast with a new Google TV interface for the operating system, and this software is also coming as a built-in operating system to smart TVs this year. As part of the launch, Google also rebranded its Play Movies & TV app to Google TV on Android (for now, on iOS it’s still appearing as Google Play Movies & TV).
Google is working on integrating the Android TV Remote Control app into the Google TV app. Here are some screenshots of the feature, which is not yet available in version 4.25. (Surprise, surprise…it’s exactly as you’d expect.) pic.twitter.com/73iqX6FRJd
— Mishaal Rahman (@MishaalRahman) March 2, 2021
Google technically already has an Android TV app on iOS and Android that offers this functionality, but neither versions have been updated in years. We wouldn’t be surprised if both ended up being discontinued if the feature gets rolled in the Google TV app.
Google is updating its augmented reality SDK so that phones with dual cameras can capture better depth information. As noted by Android Police, the most recent update to the Google Play Services for AR app, which is how Google distributes ARCore features, now notes “Dual camera stereo depth on supported devices” in its changelog.
For now, it appears that the support will be limited to Google’s own Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, which were both released in 2019. The list of compatible ARCore devices on Google’s developer site says that dual camera support will roll out in the coming weeks.
Notably, this means that the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G, both of which are 2020 Pixel phones with dual cameras, won’t see the benefits for now. That may be because their secondary cameras are ultrawides rather than the Pixel 4 and 4 XL’s telephotos, which would have implications for how they could produce more detailed depth maps.
In any case, it’s another consequence of Google’s indecision on Pixel camera lenses. The company long insisted that it only needed a single camera due to computational features like Super Res Zoom on the Pixel 3, then confusingly added a telephoto lens on the Pixel 4 anyway, then backtracked and swapped it out for an ultrawide on the Pixel 5.
Clue, best known for its period tracking app, announced that it received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for a digital birth control function, which it says can help users prevent pregnancy based only on the start date of a user’s period. It calculates the window where someone could get pregnant based on statistical modeling.
“It personalizes over time. So as the individual puts in their cycle day one then we’re able to personalize the window of their high risk days vs their low risk days,” Clue’s chief medical officer Lynae Brayboy told TechCrunch.
The company plans to launch its digital birth control some time this year.
Clue says that its digital birth control is 92 percent effective at preventing unwanted pregnancy when it’s used the way most people do (accounting for some errors) and 97 percent effective under perfect use. The statistical method it uses was originally developed and tested by researchers at the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University and a company called Cycle Technologies, and acquired by Clue in 2019.
This is the second form of digital birth control to get clearance from the FDA to market itself as birth control. The first, Natural Cycles, requires users to take their body temperature each morning. Its 2018 clearance was controversial — it came just after the app was blamed for unwanted pregnancies in Sweden.
Clue’s digital birth control was cleared by the FDA under its “substantially equivalent” designation, meaning that the agency determined that it was safe and effective because it’s similar to a product already on the market. In this case, Clue’s product was considered similar enough to Natural Cycles. Elina Berglund, the CEO of Natural Cycles, said in a statement that the company will be doing its own analysis of Clue. “Our initial findings based on the FDA filing indicate a significant difference between Natural Cycles and this other product — including that this product is solely based on menstrual data and no other biomarker such as temperature,” she said.
The idea behind digital birth control is related to fertility awareness methods of birth control, where people track metrics like the dates of their periods, their temperature, and changes to their cervical mucus to predict when they’re ovulating and could become pregnant. These methods can be highly effective when used correctly, but they typically take rigorous, hands-on tracking. They can be good options for people who can’t or don’t want to use hormonal birth control or other methods, but some experts worry that the principles can’t translate into apps.
Only people who are between 18 and 45 years old and who have regular periods should use Clue’s birth control, the company told TechCrunch. If someone is ineligible or their cycle becomes too irregular, the app will lock them out, said CEO Audrey Tsang.
Clue’s period tracker previously had a feature that predicted if users were in a fertile window — the day of and days leading up to ovulation. The app said that the fertile window feature should not be used as birth control but could help users who are trying to become pregnant. The company removed that feature last week, saying that it could be inaccurate. “We determined that it could be misleading to those who wish to use the fertile window to avoid pregnancy,” it said in a blog post. “We hope to offer a solution to this problem in the near future.”
Vizio today filed its S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as the TV and soundbar maker heads toward an initial public offering. “We envision the Vizio smart TV as the center of the connected home — where families play games together, where friends watch movies together, where work and learning happen, and where all things in between take place,” Vizio founder, chairman, and CEO William Wang wrote in a letter that opens the S-1. “Going public is an important milestone for us as we continue to grow and execute our goals.”
The filing reveals that Vizio has sold over 80 million TVs and 11 million soundbars since the company’s founding. It sold 7.1 million TVs in 2020. Vizio’s TVs have long delivered performance and picture quality far above their price, though in recent years competitors like TCL have tried to outdo the company in this regard. “We will continue our successful hardware business, iterating on models as we’ve done before, and at the same time build our name in smart TV software,” Wang said.
The S-1 begins with Wang recounting his surviving a plane crash. “I ran to the front of the plane, forced open the emergency door and jumped out,” he said. “I’ll save you the messy details, but let’s just say that I am beyond thankful to be here today, writing you this letter.” According to Wang, his renewed appreciation of being home — and a desire to make it “everyone’s favorite place” — led to Vizio’s creation.
But the future is more so about software and platforms than it is about selling TVs, where the profit margins are often scant. Later in the filing, Vizio says:
While we generate the significant majority of our total net revenue from sales of our Smart TVs and sound bars, our Platform+ net revenue has grown 304.4 percent from $36.4 million in 2018 to $147.2 million in 2020. We believe that Platform+ will be the key driver of our future margin growth and financial performance.
“Platform+” refers to a combination of SmartCast (the software that runs on Vizio’s TVs) and Inscape, which is Vizio’s data, analytics, and content recognition subsidiary. The S-1 points out that the company continues to see huge advertising potential from its ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) services like WatchFree and Vizio Free Channel. It also sells ad space on the SmartCast home screen and gets a percentage of subscriptions and purchases made in third-party apps on its platform. Plus, Vizio charges streaming partners to put their logo on TV boxes or branded remote buttons. The company says there are currently over 12 million active SmartCast accounts. (Interestingly, Vizio also reveals there are 5.3 million internet-connected TVs still running its legacy software.
(Important background on Vizio’s data practices: the company agreed in 2017 to pay the FTC $2.2 million over charges that the company was tracking customer viewing habits without obtaining sufficient consent. Those same concerns also led to a $17 million class action settlement.)
Vizio tried to reinvent the TV experience in 2016 but has pulled back on some of those experiments.Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge
Vizio tried to completely reinvent the TV experience in 2016 by removing all built-in apps from its first SmartCast TVs. Instead, the TVs relied on “casting” content from entertainment apps on mobile devices. The company also briefly ditched the traditional TV remote control and packaged an Android tablet with those TVs. Both of these grand experiments were reined in a few years later, with Vizio again bundling popular apps on its TV platform (while retaining the same casting features as before) and switching back to a normal remote.
Risk factors in the S-1 are all pretty standard, though Vizio does acknowledge the sometimes fractious relationship between streaming app companies and platforms. “If we are unable to provide a competitive entertainment offering through SmartCast, our ability to attract and retain consumers would be harmed,” the document says.
Vizio says it envisions the future of SmartCast expanding beyond pure entertainment to include the following:
Communication: Engaging with social networks, using messaging services and accessing telecommuting features such as video conferencing.
Fitness and wellness: Connecting to interactive fitness and wellness services, such as personal training sessions and exercise tracking, from the comfort of their own living room.
Commerce: Browsing online shopping services, purchasing products featured on TV as part of dynamic ads and placing food orders on delivery services through voice control.
Community: Hosting virtual, integrated watch parties for the latest movie or the big game; watching live sports on TV will become an interactive experience through play-along gaming.
Dynamic entertainment experiences: Attending virtual concerts or sporting events offering viewer-controlled, multi-cam experiences.
Vizio has applied to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “VZIO.”
Amazon has quietly rolled out a slight update to its new app icon that it debuted back in January, which alters the colorful strip of tape on the icon that bore an unfortunate resemblance to a toothbrush-style mustache.
The toothbrush mustache was originally popularized by comedians like Charlie Chaplin in the early 1900s before it was forever associated with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
It’s a change that makes sense. Amazon’s ads have portrayed the swooping A-to-Z arrow that adorns its packaging as singing mouths, and in that light, the ragged edge and width of the blue tape on the previous icon design looks uncomfortably similar to the tonsorial trim.
The updated icon looks to avoid the issue entirely, swapping out the mustache-style adhesive for a two-toned folded piece of tape that alludes to the (presumed) joy of tearing open an Amazon package instead of one of the most brutal dictators in modern history.
Amazon’s design team can take some consolation, though, in joining the storied annals of modern companies that have been forced to digitally shave controversial mustaches. Plus, the new icon is already getting much more favorable comparisons: apparently, the angular tape now makes it look like Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Aang instead.
i know the new amazon app icon is supposed to represent their packages but every time i see it i just see Aang from Avatar smiling at me lololol pic.twitter.com/kIPwneHr2p
— flipboitamidles (DAMN%) (@flipboitamidles) February 26, 2021
Gatorade is today releasing a new fitness wearable that tests your sweat to let you know how and when to best rehydrate after working out. The Gx Sweat Patch is sold in packages of two for $25 and pairs with Gatorade’s Gx app to let you efficiently hydrate and hopefully recover faster and avoid cramps in the process.
The sweat patch is applied to your left inner arm before a workout and slurps up sweat as you move, funneling the fluid through a color-changing channel on the patch. After you’re done working out, you use the Gx App to scan the patch. Gatorade says it’s able to offer insights on how much body fluid was lost and how much sodium needs to be replenished (presumably with Gatorade) to recover efficiently.
The Gx app scans the sweat patch to generate a “sweat profile”.Image: Gatorade
The Gx app also attaches these hydration insights to specific workouts, so you should theoretically have a recommendation of how much to drink before, during, and after every 10-mile run you do, if you’ve created a sweat profile for it in the app.
Even with all of the polished Gatorade branding, $25 for a package of two patches puts the individual price around $12.50, which seems high considering a patch can only be used once. Gatorade imagines using a patch for each of the workout types that someone does, so if you only play basketball and run, maybe a single $25 purchase is enough. But Gatorade also recommends creating a new sweat profile for each climate or temperature you work out in. So the more ways and places you exercise, the more you may need to spend to accurately hydrate and recover efficiently.
The Gx Sweat Patch has a color-changing channel that it funnels sweat through.Image: Gatorade
The Gx Sweat Patch may seem a little unusual, but for a world increasingly comfortable with all sorts of biometric fitness tracking, it seems like a logical next step for a serious athlete. It’s a way for Gatorade to sell more Gatorade, but depending on the person, the possible annoying upsell of future Gatorade products might be worth the extra knowledge.
Google’s latest feature drop for Pixel phones makes it easier to share audio recordings, adds better integration for an underwater housing accessory, and wraps up a couple of other updates into a neat little package for Pixel owners. The update is available starting today for some owners of Pixel 3 phones and newer, and it will continue to reach others over the next two weeks.
First up, recordings made via the Recorder app will now be backed up at recorder.google.com where they can be shared with anyone. The site, discovered last week by 9to5Google, offers the same transcription and search features included in the app itself. It’s somewhat similar to Otter.ai, a tool for transcribing Zoom meetings.
The update also includes better support for an underwater phone housing sold by Kraken Sports. The housing, which is a $325 universal accessory that lets you use your phone’s camera underwater, will now allow Pixel owners to use their own native camera app rather than Kraken’s app. That should result in higher-quality underwater photos since the native app is able to capture and process more data than third-party camera apps can.
Images: Google
Other minor updates include a new bedtime screen when the phone is placed on a Pixel Stand, plus three new wallpaper options with illustrations celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8th that actually look kind of cool; they’re illustrated by Spanish duo Cachetejack. Finally, Smart Compose — the feature that automatically suggests words and phrases as you type — comes to a bunch of messaging apps, including Android Messages, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Slack.
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