Monday, December 16, 2019

Vivo X30, X30 Pro 5G with Samsung’s Exynos 980 SoC, 64MP Camera Launched: Price, Features


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Apple CEO Tim Cook Joins Malala Yousafzai to Discuss Education at SJSU

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Apple CEO Tim Cook today visited San Jose State University near the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California where he sat down with Malala Yousafzai and SJSU president Mary Papazian to discuss education and the empowerment of women at the university.

Apple in January 2018 announced a partnership with the Malala Fund to support the Malala Fund's work championing a quality education for girls all around the world, and the two companies have worked together since then. Cook is on the Malala Fund leadership council, and he tweeted about the meeting this afternoon.


According to SJSU newspaper The Spartan Daily, Cook spoke about familiar topics that include the importance of an early coding education and privacy.


"We've tried to focus on teaching coding skills to everyone," said Cook. Everyone should learn to code before they graduate."

Cook said that it's important to introduce collaboration into the classroom as early as possible.
"The earlier you introduce collaboration into the classroom and the teacher becomes the coach and tech is used as a tool, not a means to itself, I see great results in boys and girls."
Malala also spoke about the work the Malala Fund is doing around the world, sharing her thoughts on the future of the Malala Fund. "Technology is changing at a very fast pace, we need to change our education for that," she said. "We have taken it for granted that education isn't possible in some places like refugee camps, but technology can change that."


Through Apple's support, the Malala Fund has aimed to double the number of grants awarded to its Gulmakai Network and extend funding programs to India and Latin America, bringing secondary education opportunities to more than 100,000 girls. Malala said that over the next five years, she hopes the Malala Fund will spread to 10 new countries.


"There are 1 billion girls not ready to enter the workforce because its not a quality education or they're not in school at all," she said.

The Malala Fund also works with Apple's Developer Academies in Brazil, and Apple is helping the Malala Fund scale its organization by assisting with technology, curriculum, and research into the policy changes needed everywhere to allow girls attend school and complete their education.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.


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True Wireless Earbuds Comparison: AirPods, Powerbeats, Sony, Jabra, and More

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After Apple came out with the AirPods, wire-free earbuds flooded the market, and there are now a ton of options from companies ranging from Sony to Razer.

In our latest YouTube video, we took a look at several popular wire-free earbud options, comparing the features and giving each one an overall score to figure out which ones are the best.

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This comparison includes the following earbuds: Razer Hammerhead, Anker Soundcore Liberty 2 Pro, Jabra Elite 75t, Sony WF-1000XM3, AirPods Pro, ‌AirPods‌ 2, and Powerbeats Pro.

We're comparing the major features of each set of earbuds and assigning a score in four different categories, including comfort, portability, sound quality, and bonus features. Keep in mind that these are opinion-based scores. We have a quick overview below, but make sure to watch the video for the full comparison.


Razer Hammerhead ($99)


These earbuds are modeled after the ‌AirPods‌ with no silicone tips and a stem at the bottom. They're cheap at $99, and while the sound isn't bad, it does lack bass.


They're not uncomfortable, and charging via USB-C is a nice bonus. Razer promises 60ms latency for gaming, and while we didn't notice a huge difference when playing a game, it was noticeable with videos. The battery lasts for four hours, with an additional 12 hours from the charging case.

  • Comfort: 8

  • Portability: 7

  • Sound Quality: 6

  • Bonus Features: 6

  • Overall: 7

Soundcore Liberty 2 ($149)


Soundcore is an Anker brand, and Anker is known for its high-quality but still affordable hardware. Priced at $149 (but often on sale for less), these earbuds are standard wireless earbuds that are rather bass heavy out of the box. These have "Astria coaxial acoustic architecture," which is a fancy way of saying good sound, and these do indeed offer some pretty great sound quality.


Sound profile can be customized with the Soundcore app, and there physical media controls. The battery lasts for 8 hours, and the USB-C charging case provides an additional 24 hours of battery life. These are comfortable to wear and provide a good seal in the ear, though there's no active noise cancellation technology (Anker does say these have noise reduction, but it's mostly for phone calls.)

  • Comfort: 8

  • Portability: 8

  • Sound Quality: 7

  • Bonus Features: 7

  • Overall: 7.5

Jabra Elite 75t ($180)


Jabra has been making wireless headphones for a long time, and the Elite 75t are the company's wire-free option. These are small earbuds (the smallest of the bunch), but they fit well and offer a good in-ear seal, so good that there's a "hearthrough" mode. We weren't entirely sure what hearthrough mode was meant to do, but it didn't seem to work well.


Sound wise, these are a little bass heavy but can be adjusted with the Jabra app, and there's excellent instrument separation. A four microphone setup offers great call quality, unsurprising from a Jabra offering. The battery lasts for 7.5 hours and the charging case provides an additional 28 hours of battery life.

  • Comfort: 8

  • Portability: 9

  • Sound Quality: 7

  • Bonus Features: 6

  • Overall: 7.5

Sony WF-1000XM3 ($229)


With noise cancellation, the Sony WF-1000XM3 are the earbuds that are closest to the ‌AirPods Pro‌. There are 6 different silicone tips for a good fit regardless of ear size, but these are heavy which can lead to ear fatigue after awhile.


Sound is excellent with impressive balance and an equalizer option in the app to adjust the sound to your preferences. Sound cancellation isn't as good as the ‌AirPods Pro‌, and the ‌AirPods Pro‌ Transparency mode wins out over the Ambient Noise control Sony offers. Battery life is 6 hours, with 24 hours from the case.

  • Comfort: 8

  • Portability: 7

  • Sound Quality: 10

  • Bonus Features: 8

  • Overall: 8

‌AirPods Pro‌ ($250)


‌AirPods Pro‌ are Apple's newest ‌AirPods‌ and the priciest on this list at $250. ‌AirPods Pro‌ are super comfortable, fit well, and offer silicone tips in three sizes. Battery life is not as good as some of the other headphones on this list at 4.5 hours with ANC, but the charging case adds 24 hours.


The press-based playback controls are easy to use, but no volume control is a major downside. Sound quality is impressive, though the ‌AirPods Pro‌ lack the option for customization via an app. The H1 chip for easy iPhone connections can't be overlooked, and the active noise cancellation works well.

  • Comfort: 9

  • Portability: 8

  • Sound Quality: 10

  • Bonus Features: 10

  • Overall: 9

‌AirPods‌ 2 ($159 - $199)


‌AirPods‌ 2 offer all of the features of the ‌AirPods Pro‌ when it comes to connectivity and device switching, but the design is the original ‌AirPods‌ design without the silicone tips. Most people find ‌AirPods‌ comfortable, but the ‌AirPods Pro‌ have the edge.


There's no active noise cancellation and the sound quality isn't quite as good, but these still sound excellent for earbuds that are this portable. ‌AirPods‌ have become some of the most popular wire-free earbuds on the market for a reason, and we think they're almost as good as the ‌AirPods Pro‌, but not quite as nice when it comes to fit or sound quality.

  • Comfort: 8

  • Portability: 8

  • Sound Quality: 7

  • Bonus Features: 9

  • Overall: 8

‌Powerbeats Pro‌ ($200)


Like the ‌AirPods‌ and ‌AirPods Pro‌, the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ have Apple's H1 chip for simple setup and fast device switching. Design wise, these are in a category of their own thanks to the earhooks that hold them securely in place even during vigorous workouts.


The silicone tips offer a tight in-ear fit that can drown out ambient noise, but there's no active noise cancellation. Sound quality is solid, but again, there's no option for customization. ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ offer excellent nine hour battery life, but the charging case is enormous because it needs to accommodate those earhooks.

  • Comfort: 8

  • Portability: 8

  • Sound Quality: 8

  • Bonus Features: 9

  • Overall: 8

Conclusion


There's nothing quite like the ‌AirPods Pro‌ if you have an Apple device, given the noise cancellation and the deep integration with the ‌iPhone‌, iPad, and Mac. Simple pairing, easy device switching, and Hey Siri support are features that third-party headphones can't match.

The Sony headphones also have noise cancellation and great sound if you're looking for an ‌AirPods Pro‌ alternative, but you'll miss out on several of the aforementioned options.

If you don't need noise cancellation, you won't go wrong with the ‌AirPods‌ 2, and for those who want an in-ear fit along with secure earhooks for working out, the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ are a great choice.

What are your favorite wire-free earbuds? Let us know in the comments.


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Mac Threat Detections on the Rise in 2019 According to Malwarebytes Report

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Mac threat detections were on the rise in 2019, according to data shared by Malwarebytes, a company that makes anti-malware software for Macs and Windows PCs.

Looking at the top 25 threat detections in 2019, six of those were Mac threats, with Mac threats accounting for 16 percent of total detections. Malwarebytes found this number significant because its Mac user base is 1/12 the size of the PC user base, but Malwarebytes does not provide direct year-over-year comparisons of Mac malware numbers.

Mac adware
Perhaps 16 percent doesn't sound impressive, but when you consider the number of devices on which these threats were detected, the results become extremely interesting. Although the total number of Mac threats is smaller than the total number of PC threats, so is the total number of Macs. Considering that our Mac user base is about 1/12 the size of our Windows user base, that 16 percent figure becomes more significant.
For the first time in 2019, Mac malware broke into the top five most-detected threats, accounting for the second and fifth-most detected threats during the year.

The number two malware was Mac adware known as NewTab, accounting for four percent of overall detections across platforms. NewTag is adware that uses browser extensions to modify the content of webpages, and it's found in Chrome. It is no longer able to be installed in Safari because of changes Apple has made to extensions.

The number five malware, PUP.PCVARK, was responsible for three precent of total detections. PUP.PCVARK (with PUP standing for potentially unwanted program) is a collection of Mac programs not intentionally installed by the user.

Malwarebytes says there were 9.8 detections per Mac in 2019, compared to 4.2 detections per device for Windows PCs. That may sound significant, but there are caveats with that data point.


All of the machines used for these figures have Malwarebytes installed, and Mac users tend to believe antivirus software is unnecessary. Macs represented in this data may have "already had some kind of suspected infection" prompting users to install the Malwarebytes software, which would skew the numbers.

For that reason, Malwarebytes believes the overall threat detection rate for all Macs is not as high as its data sample suggests.

Though Malwarebytes suggests Mac malware is on the rise, it's worth noting that the threats Macs are facing consist primarily of adware and "potentially unwanted programs." There are more nefarious malware programs able to infect Macs, but these are more targeted and limited in scope, so unlikely to affect most Mac users.


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Photoshop for iPad Receiving 'Select Subject' Feature and More Today

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Adobe today announced that it is rolling out an update for Photoshop for iPad with its promised "Select Subject" feature and more.

Select Subject uses machine learning to enable users to automatically select the subject of an image to speed up complex selections. Adobe says the feature works exactly the same on the iPad as it does on the desktop.


Adobe is committed to continue improving Select Subject to work even better on tricky subjects like hair and fur.

Last week, Adobe also began rolling out performance improvements for its cloud documents system. The enhancements are already live for PSD files that are 75MB or larger. Depending on the size of your file and your network performance, Adobe says upload and download speeds are up to 90 percent faster.

In the first half of 2020, Photoshop for iPad will gain additional features, including the "Refine Edge" brush for selecting soft edges, integration of Lightroom and Photoshop workflows on the iPad, and more.

Photoshop for iPad received poor reviews following its release, but its rating has slowly improved from 2/5 stars to 3.3/5 stars on the App Store.


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This new feature coming to Chrome will be a huge step forward for Web Apps


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Apple News Partnering With ABC News to Provide Coverage of 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

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Apple today announced that it will be collaborating with ABC News to provide up-to-the-minute coverage of the key events of the 2020 U.S. presidential election through the Apple News app.


The coverage will begin with the Democratic primary debate on February 7, 2020 in New Hampshire. Apple News will feature ABC News videos and live-streaming coverage, as well as FiveThirtyEight polling data, infographics, and analysis during key moments in the 2020 election, according to Apple.

Apple News, ABC News, and WMUR-TV will also partner for the February debate, the first to be held after primary voting begins.

The partnership will extend through Super Tuesday, the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, the general election debates, election night, and the 2021 presidential inauguration.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.


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