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Samsung Galaxy Book Flex Alpha hands-on: Cheaper, with few sacrifices

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I was concerned that to drop the few hundred dollars, Samsung would have had to sacrifice build quality and deliver a machine that felt cheaper. But once I picked up the Flex Alpha here at CES 2020, I was relieved. The laptop is just as premium to the touch as its costlier siblings, with a similarly sturdy, thin and light frame. It has the same sumptuous QLED screen, running at full HD, and can also hit an impressive 600 nits of brightness in a “Outdoor Mode” you can activate when needed. Thanks to the energy-saving benefits of QLEDs, the Flex Alpha should offer plenty of battery life, though it has a smaller 54Whr battery compared to the 69.7Whr cells in the more-expensive pair.

The 2.6-pound Flex Alpha isn’t the slimmest or lightest laptop around, but it certainly seems like one of the most attractive for its price. I’m glad Samsung didn’t have to sacrifice too much — you’ll still get the same fingerprint sensor on the keyboard for convenient logins, as well as two USB-A 3.0 sockets, one USB C port, a microSD card reader, an HDMI slot and a headphone jack.

The main tradeoffs Samsung had to make here in addition to the smaller battery, were limiting the graphics card and storage choices. You’ll only get integrated Intel UHD graphics, instead of having the option to upgrade to more powerful Iris Pro or NVIDIA MX 250 cards. Still, you can get the Flex Alpha with tenth-generation Intel Core processors, which is reasonable for the price.

The new laptop will be available by the first half of the year, so if you’ve been looking for a stylish QLED laptop under $900, this might be worth your time.

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Olive Union Smart Ear hands-on: A stylish hearing device with tradeoffs

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The Smart Ear ($249) is sold as a single unit, and appears to be aimed at those who struggle in noisy situations or just want an occasional assist with their hearing. Which is to say, it’s an “amplifier” rather than a hearing aid. It comes in either black or white, pairs with your phone over Bluetooth and works with a companion app. At a glance, it could be a regular true wireless earbud. It’ll charge in a small cradle over micro-USB and offers up to 12 hours of talk time, or over a claimed week on standby.

I was able to try one out, and the experience is similar to a lot of “smart” hearing devices. Once charged and paired, you’ll head to the companion app. The first order of business is a hearing test. It’s fairly simple and similar to what you might experience at the audiologist. I will say, you definitely want to find a quiet place to perform this. My apartment is near a semi-busy road, and the passing traffic was enough for me to get distracted, opting to wait until I could find a quieter place to complete it.

Olive Union Smart Ear

Once you’re done with the formalities, it’s really a case of popping it in your ear and choosing your settings via the app. There are three primary modes optimized for different situations: default, conversation and TV viewing. As usual, these mostly focus on hearing speech, but you can also use the Smart Ear for taking calls and listening to music in one ear, like a regular Bluetooth headset.

Wearing the Olive Union Smart Ear is as comfortable as most other wireless buds. That is to say, it’s perfectly fine for short to medium-length periods, but I’m not sure I’d want to wear this all day. Olive Union doesn’t pitch it for all-day use, though, so that’s likely not the intended use case anyway.

As for the sound enhancement, I found it to be pretty good at boosting the TV and it helped with hearing people on the side where my hearing is lacking (I have about 50 percent hearing loss in my left ear). It’s definitely helpful, but I found that background noises (clinking plates, a running faucet, etc.) were also boosted, and these sounds are always pretty unwelcome with an assisted hearing device, as they tend to be extra sharp or irritating. That’s not to say it was a huge problem; it’s just that a full hearing aid will do a better job at only amplifying the sounds you want to hear.

Similarly, taking calls works but there’s an obvious flaw if you have one-sided hearing loss like I do. Given that you only have the one bud, and it’s probably in your bad ear, I would instinctively prefer to use my other ear. You can, of course, remove the bud and place it in your good ear for making calls, but that slightly breaks the convenience of setting it and forgetting it.

I also had an issue increasing the volume mid-call. When I tried it, the volume actually seemed to go down. I could resolve this by ending the call, increasing the volume again and calling the person back, but that’s obviously not ideal if you’re the one receiving the call, or can’t return their call. Likewise, the Smart Ear will stream music, but with just the one bud, it’s a very lopsided experience — more of a “you can” than “you should” feature.

Olive Union Smart Ear

Another bugbear is the amount of feedback that it can generate. There’s an option in the app for feedback cancellation, which I found I needed to have switched on all the time. It’s possible that different ear anatomies might be more prone to generating feedback, but for me, with this setting off, the feedback was nearly consistent. Even with the setting activated, feedback still seemed to occur after a while and my colleagues could hear it. Reseating the Smart Ear usually solved it, but it’s worth noting.

All in, there are enough positives here for the Smart Ear to be worth considering if it fits your needs. The bud was able enough to assist with my personal hearing loss. The $249 price point is significantly cheaper than most hearing aids (which typically cost $2,000 up), and the design means you won’t feel like you’re wearing an actual hearing aid. I do wish that the general stigma about hearing aids would disappear, and maybe it is, albeit slowly. Either way, if this is something you’d be more comfortable wearing, that’s a plus.

There are a few caveats, though, which I’ve mentioned above. For me, perhaps the feedback is the most annoying thing. It seems to slowly creep in after a while. It only takes a second to jiggle the device, and it goes, but it’s enough to be a minor annoyance. The music feature also feels a little superfluous, but it’s a nice perk nonetheless.

Olive Union doesn’t have an official launch date just yet, but company reps say the Smart Ear will be available at b8ta stores (and b8ta.com) soon.

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Fisker’s Ocean electric SUV will start at $29,999 after tax credit

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Those payment options aren’t new, but still stand out. If you’d prefer to lease the Ocean, you can pay $379 per month (plus $2,999 down before delivery) with maintenance and service included. There’s also a “$0 drive off” option if you’re qualified and make a $2,999 down payment. Fisker is promising to make much of the usual financial and service drudgery available though its mobile app, including making payments, scheduling maintenance (Fisker will pick up and drop off your car) and signing up for insurance.

You can also expect some clever touches in the cabin. On top of a previously mentioned California Mode (that opens all the windows and panels), you can expect Tesla-style perks like a karaoke mode.

Fisker still expects to start making the Ocean in late 2021 and provide “high-volume deliveries” in 2022. That’s a long time to wait for an EV from a brand with a troubled past. You’ll have a chance to see the car at experience centers in 2020, though, and you can schedule test drives through an app in 2021. The company is clearly convinced that you’ll like what it has to offer — the challenge is earning that trust.

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GoPro Karma drones are unable to fly due to a possible GPS flaw

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The company told Engadget that “engineering is actively troubleshooting” the problem, but didn’t have more to share.

This might be a product of the GPS rollover flaw that has affected numerous devices. Some hardware will reset its GPS date when the associated clock hits 1,024 weeks, throwing off timing and thus location-finding abilities. GoPro hasn’t updated the Karma since September 2018, several months after exiting the drone business — there’s a possibility that it simply hadn’t addressed the reset issue by then. Whatever the cause, the grounded drones serve as a reminder that GPS-dependent gadgets aren’t guaranteed to keep working unless there’s an appropriate level of support.

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Charmin thinks your bathroom needs robots and VR

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There’s a rolling robot, the RollBot, that will deliver you a fresh roll of toilet paper and can be controlled with your phone via Bluetooth. SmellSense will check how a bathroom smells before you enter by scanning for carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, two smelly compounds. SmellSense will provide real-time bathroom stench updates with a “GO/NO GO” display.

Charmin

V.I.Pee is Charmin’s vision for the future of porta potties. It’s equipped with Oculus Rift S VR, and it will show you what you’re missing outside the loo. That could come in handy if you have to use the bathroom during a concert, for instance.

You’ll be able to see all of these prototypes at CES. Though, for better or worse, Charmin doesn’t have any plans to turn them into actual products.

“The concepts we’re bringing to CES are a playful way to showcase our relentless obsession with helping people Enjoy the Go now and into the future,” Charmin Brand Director Rob Reinerman said in a press release.

Don’t expect this to be the only bathroom tech at CES. Last year, Kohler introduced new voice-controlled toilet and shower devices. Moen added Alexa support to its smart shower line, and we’ve seen smart mirrors that tell you your daily agenda.

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Greetings from CES 2020! | Engadget

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For Engadget editors, life is just a series of moments while you wait for CES to come back around again. Sometimes it almost feels like we never left.

But we did. And now we’re back.

CES 2020 is about to get started in sunny (and slightly smelly) Las Vegas. As always there will be plenty of cars, TVs and smart (fill-in-the-blanks). But our real job is to separate the wheat from the chaff and bring you only the best of what the world’s largest tech conference has to offer. The show floor hasn’t officially opened yet, but we’ve already seen plenty shiny new laptops, a lot of 8K screens, and even a shower head that’s also a smart speaker.

Of course, you don’t want to miss out on our liveblogs for Sony (January 6th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT) and Samsung (January 6th at 9:30pm ET / 6:30pm PT). And as always we are hosting the official Best of CES awards on Thursday January 9th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT.

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UK investigates if cyberattack led to stock exchange outage

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The exchange contracts development out to third-party teams, and a WSJ contact said it’s concerned about the security of that software chain. There’s a risk that the inadvertent spread of malware or rogue contractors could pose problems.

An exchange spokesperson maintained that the outage was due to a “technical software configuration issue” after an upgrade, and that the organization had “thoroughly investigated” the cause. However, it’s clear that GCHQ isn’t willing to take any chances. Intelligence agencies worldwide are worried about hacks targeting critical infrastructure, and malicious intent discovered here could be a sign of a greater threat.

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Audi EVs will get high-performance RS models in 2021

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While there’s nothing definite, Autocar also said it was “understood” Audi would resurrect the R8 E-Tron as a limited production supercar that would arrive in late 2021. It’s believed to be an “upgraded” EV that would largely resemble the 2015 car on the surface.

The RS strategy wouldn’t be surprising. Audi sometimes has three performance trims for a given car, and its sibling brand Porsche already offers the Taycan (which shares roots with the E-Tron GT) in three variants. While we wouldn’t count on Audi duplicating Porsche’s configurations, the four-ring badge could easily use those powerplant choices as starting points.

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SmartTools’ updated weight lifting cuffs are cheaper and more durable

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For years, physical rehabilitation centers have used BFR to help people build muscle or reduce muscle loss after things like surgery and accidents. The idea is that by restricting blood as it’s leaving a muscle (while allowing oxygenated blood to flow to the muscle unimpeded), you can increase metabolic stress and cellular swelling, leading to increased growth hormone and muscle growth. By lifting less weight, you’re also putting less strain on the joints.

The new SmartCuffs are meant to be consumer-friendly, so you can use them at home, at the gym or at work. They’re automated so you don’t have to manually pump them. They’ll automatically shut off if the pressure exceeds a recommended range for each person, and SmartTools says they’re more rugged than past iterations.

Previously, you could buy two SmartCuffs for $350. Starting tomorrow, the new model is available for pre-order for $199. The cuffs will start shipping in May, and SmartTools will be demoing them at CES, so if you’re going, you can preview them this week.

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Samsung sheds light on its ‘artificial human’ project

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A series of videos unearthed by Reddit users and compiled by Good Content (below) appears to offer more detail. In at least one case, Samsung appears to have captured an actor’s likeness and voice to use those as the starting point for a Neon avatar — the appearances and expressions are realistic because they’re initially based on real people. When it comes to their practical purposes, Mistry hinted in a recent LiveMint interview that digitally produced humans like these could serve as a “virtual news anchor, virtual receptionist, or even an AI-generated film star.” They’d put a warmer, more accessible face on AI assistants that might otherwise seem cold and robotic.

There are many remaining questions. Are these 3D avatars, or just cleverly-manipulated 2D? Just how much autonomy do they have? And when might people see Neon in the real world? Samsung is expected to say more at CES on January 6th, although it’s not certain that you’ll get as many answers as you might like.

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