Blog

The apps and gear you need to get fit without breaking the bank

[ad_1]

Or, if you’d prefer to take a break from looking at your phone while you exercise but still want some instruction and guidance, YouTube is chock full of workout routines from some of the biggest names in personal fitness today. Whether you’re blasting through circuits with Joanna Soh, strengthening your core with MadFit, flowing through yoga poses with Adrienne or performing pilates with Blogilates, there’s an exercise video that can help you reach your fitness goals. These accounts are run by established and accredited fitness personalities with years of experience and extensive follower accounts, so you can feel assured you’re taking workout advice from someone who actually knows what they’re doing.

I’ve personally used Yoga with Adrienne on and off for years and found it to be very close to what you’d find at the local yoga studio. She explains not only how to perform each movement but also how those movements fit into the larger practice. The pacing is slow enough to not rush you from form to form but not so slow that you get bored waiting to move to the next one.

These are all perfectly fine options assuming you’re a motivated self-starter. However, if you feel you need a bit more external motivation to get off the couch, Daily Burn could be right for you. This streaming service offers thousands of workout videos covering everything from yoga and barre to high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and pilates, across ability levels. These videos stream through Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Firestick and Chromecast as well as through the company’s mobile apps. There’s new content added daily in the form of a 30-minute “Daily Burn 365” video, which goes live every morning at 9am ET (and is available on demand after that). Additionally, the site offers a calorie counter, weight and workout tracking and weekly fitness goals to keep you motivated. The service costs around $13 a month, but that’s a steal compared to what you’d pay for a gym membership and group classes.

Maybe you’d like to get a bit of fresh air with your exercise (or just don’t want your living room to smell like stale sweat when you’re done). There is still no need to blow a wad of cash on CrossFit lessons. Check your city’s Parks and Rec department for listings of local open spaces, as well as free or low-cost classes and volunteering opportunities. The Calisthenics Parks organization maintains a similar database of publicly accessible fitness stations, trail runs and outdoor exercise areas all over the world.

If you’re looking for group classes or just a workout buddy, the FitLink community can put you in touch with running clubs and personal trainers, as well as help you develop your own workout routines for the next time you exercise solo. Also take a stroll through your local Eventbrite — it routinely offers a variety of group health and wellness classes.

Get your soon-to-be-fit butt down to the local park, public pool, dog run or playground. As long as the children’s area isn’t swarming with kids and toddlers, which you can easily avoid by going in the early morning or late afternoon, you should have the run of the place. Those chin-up stands and monkey bars that kicked your ass during the President’s Challenge are just as difficult as you remember them, if not more so, now that you’re pushing an adult’s weight around. As the video below from Art of Manliness demonstrates, there are plenty of challenging bodyweight exercises you can do in a playground.

The equipment

Once you’ve settled on a workout regimen, it’s time to get equipped. Luckily, you won’t need much. If you’re giving yoga a shot, sure, you could set down a beach towel or work on the bare floor, or you could get this sweat resistant yoga mat from Amazon ($16) so you’re not turning your living room floor into a slip-n-slide the moment you get your chakras flowing. You can’t go wrong with a set of generic gym towels ($22 for a 12-pack), plus they double as stretching aids and are cheap enough that you can afford to lose some in the bottom of your gear bag. And if you’re just starting out with the practice and aren’t yet as flexible as you’d like to be, pick up a pair of foam support blocks for $11.

exercise straps

A set of resistance bands, like these from Serious Steel ($110), can also prove helpful if you’re looking to improve muscle tone and mobility. There are full sets on Amazon, but nothing says you can’t buy them piecemeal at $10 a pop and just pick up more as needed as you get stronger. Plus, even at a hundred bucks, they’re still a third of the cost of many adjustable dumbbell sets.

Should you want something a bit more robust than a set of people-sized rubber bands, take a look at the BodyBoss Home Gym 2.0 ($179). It combines a folding platform with resistance bands and sturdy handles that mimic the feel of bars and dumbbells. From squats to curls to cardio, the BodyBoss offers more than 300 separate exercises as well as hundreds of instructional videos. Yet, when it’s fully folded, the BodyBoss is small enough to fit in a suitcase so you can even take it with you when traveling.

Are you working out at home and have access to a spare doorway? Then you’re in luck because you can easily convert that doorway into a pull-up station with this upper body workout bar from Iron Gym ($30). Depending on how you hang it on the frame, it can also serve as a push-up stand or sit-up anchor. Or, if you want to get fancy, check out Monkii Bars 2 ($199). These suspension straps can attach to practically anything — door frames, tree branches, playground equipment and what have you — and leverage your own body weight as resistance on more than 300 exercises. Working in conjunction with the iOS/Android app, you can follow along with both time- and rep-based routines; track progress; and gain access to new, free workouts delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Outdoor workout gear

Should you choose to train in the great outdoors, you’ll do well to pick up a few extra pieces of equipment. Workout gloves, like this set from Trideer ($14), are a must. You don’t know where those monkey bars have been. You’ll also need to stay hydrated, so be sure to pack a water bottle. Kleen Kanteen offers stainless steel bottles ($15-plus) that are practically indestructible under normal conditions. I picked one up in 2011 and it’s still my daily carry. Or if you want a lightweight plastic option, Nalgene has a BPA-free widemouth bottle for just $10.

If you’re planning to exploit your local playground or schoolyard as a training area, you might as well go all out and get yourself a rainbow-colored beaded jump rope ($7-plus), you know, like from elementary school. Skipping rope is a great way to develop your coordination, cardio and stamina. And if you’d prefer to not just skip to your lou, give Jump Rope Training from Crossrope a try. Available on both Android and iOS (and syncable with both Google Fit and Apple Health), this instructional app works with the company’s Infinity Rope system ($88-plus). Those ropes enable more accurate workout tracking but can get pretty pricey. Even so, the app is free, and you can easily follow along even if you don’t have $88 for the smart ropes.

Finally, you’re going to need a bag to tote this stuff around in. A lightweight drawstring bag, like this one from BeeGreen is just $10, but is large enough to carry everything you’ll need for the session.

Images: Brett Putman for Engadget (lead and interstitial photos)

ENGADGET’S GUIDE TO FITNESS AND HEALTH

  • The best workout headphones
  • Tuesday: How to get fit without breaking the bank
  • Wednesday: The best fitness wearables
  • Thursday: The best accessibility gadgets and tech for the elderly
  • Friday: The best apps to keep motivated and focused on your health goals

[ad_2]

Source link

UK introduces mandatory drone registration and pilot test

[ad_1]

The registration system is a way to connect drones to their owners, both to return drones which get lost and to ensure that operators are flying their drones responsibly. The registration is cheap, at just £9 ($12), but operators will need to take an online education course and test as part of the process. Once registration is complete, owners will be provided with a unique code that they must add to their drone to make it identifiable.

In addition to registering the drone itself, each person who controls a drone must obtain a flyer ID which requires taking a theory test. Children under 13 can still fly drones if they pass the test, but their parent or guardian must register for them. The operator of each drone must be over 18 and is responsible for ensuring that only people with a valid flyer ID pilot their drone.

Registration is mandatory for the operation of drones weighing more than 250g, and it must be completed by November 30th this year. Flying an unregistered drone after this time could result in a fine of up to £1000 ($1290).

In order to comply with these requirements and similar rules in the US, some drone manufacturers are deliberately ensuring their machines weigh in below the limit. DJI’s Mavic Mini, for example, weighs exactly 249 grams.

To register a drone, you can head to the Civil Aviation Authority’s website.

[ad_2]

Source link

The Morning After: Microsoft unveils a new mobile Office app

[ad_1]

Microsoft still hasn’t perfected the Windows on ARM experience.Surface Pro X review

If you must have Microsoft’s software to get work done on the go, the Surface Pro X is a solid choice. But the entire Windows on Snapdragon platform is plagued by limited app compatibility and bugs. Plus, adding the Slim Pen stylus and keyboard — you won’t want to use Windows on a tablet without it — bumps its $999 price to $1,270.

This hybrid showcases what the new automaker is capable of achieving.Polestar 1 hybrid first drive

While a $155,000 vehicle that’s only one of 1,500 ever built seems like an odd commuter, it can do the job and probably handle most of that drive in electric mode. The downside is that while its plexiglass-framed wiring looks cool, a triple-battery setup severely cuts into the available trunk space. This grand tourer is a halo car that works better as a concept, and with good reason — only 450 are coming to the US. Even for big EV fans, it probably makes sense to wait a little longer for the $60k Polestar 2.

You can try it out on Android right now.Microsoft’s new Office app for mobile combines Word, Excel and Powerpoint

Instead of grabbing separate apps for Word, Excel and Powerpoint (aka the Office Triforce), Microsoft’s new Office app puts them all together. The Office app also makes better use of your phone’s talents, with the ability to take a photo of a document and turn it into an editable Word file on the fly or even do the same with printed-out tables in Excel. It’s available for public testing on Android, while an iOS test group is already full.

The old Edge browser is now known as Edge Classic.Microsoft’s Chromium Edge browser arrives January 15th

After launching a beta test for the new Chromium Edge in September, Microsoft is now gearing up to officially launch the browser on January 15th, 2020. You can test out the near-final Release Candidate version today, which should be stable enough for anyone to use, but also lets IT administrators prepare for the new Edge.

In case you didn’t know — Instagram and Whatsapp are ‘from Facebook.’Facebook hopes a new logo will distract you from its problems

Time for a rebrand.

Phone cameras have gotten way better, and it’s all down to smarter software.Upscaled: How computational photography is making your photos better

To get around the small sensor, narrow lens and shallow depth of smartphone cameras, companies have had to get creative. The biggest advances all come from ways to stack or combine multiple images in the phone using specialized software. Computational photography is using algorithms and even machine learning to stitch together multiple photos to yield better results than were previously possible — here’s how it works.

But wait, there’s more…

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t Subscribe.

Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.

Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.



[ad_2]

Source link

Xiaomi’s Mi Watch looks like an Apple Watch but it’s half the price

[ad_1]

The Mi Watch has a 44mm face covered by a 1.78-inch AMOLED screen with a 326ppi pixel density. There will be two versions available — one with an aluminum body and strap, and one with a stainless steel bezel and strap.

It comes with a built-in microphone for making calls or recording voice notes, and there’s a speaker for listening to incoming calls or music. There’s a eSIM slot to support calls and 4G connectivity, plus Bluetooth and WiFi as you’d expect. And there’s GPS and NFC so it can be used for location and contactless payment.

The 570mAh battery promises to last up to 36 hours of use, with the watch powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 4GB processor with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage.

The software it runs is MIUI For Watch, which is based on Google Wear OS, and there will be a separate app store available for downloading more apps. It comes with built-in fitness functions for measuring heart rate and sleep, with ten special modes for activities like running, cycling and swimming.

The standard aluminum version of the Mi Watch will cost 1299 RMB ($186) and is on sale in mainland China now, while the exclusive stainless steel version will cost 1999 RMB ($286) and will be released in December. That’s about half the price of an entry-level Apple Watch Series 5, which costs $399.

Both versions of the Mi Watch are China-only for now, but there’s a chance they could make their way into regional Xiaomi stores in the future.

[ad_2]

Source link

Google workers demand the company achieves zero emissions by 2030

[ad_1]

The workers are also calling for “zero contracts to enable or accelerate the extraction of fossil fuels,” linking to a Gizmodo piece pointing out that the tech giant provides automation, cloud and AI services to some of the biggest oil companies in the world. Next, the workers want a plan that provides “zero funding for climate-denying or -delaying think tanks, lobbyists and politician.” A report published by The Guardian in October details Google’s “substantial” contributions to climate change deniers. The recipients reportedly include the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), which was instrumental in getting the administration to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement.

Finally, the workers are demanding a strategy that has “zero collaboration with entities enabling the incarceration, surveillance, displacement, or oppression of refugees or frontline communities.” These demands, they said, were set by workers across the industry. Amazon workers published an open letter with similar conditions back in April, which also called for the e-commerce giant to do better when it comes to climate-related issues.

The Google workers closed their letter with:

“Google is a global company with billions of users across the world, many of whom are already bearing the brunt of climate disaster. Google’s code of conduct requires respect for users and for opportunities. As Google workers, we are committed to putting our users first, and Google must do the same.”

[ad_2]

Source link

Trump administration begins formal withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

[ad_1]

When Donald Trump announced his plan to withdraw from the international agreement — made by over 200 countries on implementing emissions reduction starting in 2020 — it led to Elon Musk, Bob Iger and others departing presidential councils, beginning a backlash that stretched across tech companies like Apple, Google and Facebook as well as state and local governments. According to critics, leaving the agreement not only fails to protect the environment, but also impedes US leadership on environmental initiatives, and reduces the US role in 2020 negotiations over pollution cuts.

The withdrawal can’t take effect until one year from now, which happens to be a day after the 2020 election. As NBC News points out, if another president is elected, they could rejoin the agreement in 30 days.



[ad_2]

Source link

The Polestar 1 is a beautiful ode to driving

[ad_1]

While the new company’s first vehicle — the $155,000 hybrid Polestar 1 — might not look the supercar part, it’s targeting a more sophisticated driver that wants to spend a lot of money and have something that’s in limited supply. It’s also the last hybrid to be released from the new automaker. Going forward, all Polestar vehicles will be EVs.

But this exquisite-looking vehicle is more than just a pretty face. I recently had a chance to drive it around the Bay Area for the day and came away impressed, not just by how well it looks in person but also its prowess on both winding backroads and the highway.

At the heart of the vehicle are three power plants. A super and turbo-charged 2-liter four-cylinder engine runs the front wheels, while two electric motors control the rear. Added up, it equals a combined power output of 619 horsepower and an impressive 738 pound-feet of torque. When placed in Power mode, the Polestar 1 is quick off the line and passes slower traffic with ease. It’ll do zero to 62 miles per hour in 4.2 seconds.

But all the power doesn’t take away the car’s grand tourer abilities. Whether I was carving through the mountains or on the highway, the Öhlins suspension was tight while simultaneously delivering a smooth ride. For an extra bit of car nerdery, the suspension can be manually adjusted for a stiffer or smoother ride.

Polestar 1 first drive

Polestar originally thought about making this a feature that could be done electronically but decided to give drivers the ability to get under the hood to adjust their vehicle’s ride.

Regardless of the driving environment, the Polestar 1 handled it aggressively and comfortably. The steering is tight without being twitchy and the acceleration is always there when you need it. Typically, you get one or the other, but with this car, it does both stupendously.

But regular life isn’t a series of jaunts. It’s a lot of freeway driving, and the car’s drivers’ assistance package worked well. It’s actually the same system found on Volvos, which is a good thing. Adaptive cruise control had no issues with cut-ins and didn’t overly brake or accelerate as other cars moved in and out of its lane.

While a $155,000 vehicle that’s only one of 1,500 ever built seems like an odd commuter, it can do the job and probably handle most of that drive in electric mode. The 34kWh battery pack will probably deliver about 55 miles (after EPA testing) before needing to fire up the gas engine.

But that brings us to the battery pack itself. Actually, the three battery packs: two in the trunk and one that runs down the center of the passenger area. Polestar took a platform and removed approximately 300 millimeters of length while working on the car to make it look the way it does. That means that the battery pack takes up about half the trunk.

On one hand, the company put the wiring on display behind a scratch-resistant Plexiglass. It looks cool. On the other hand, you can only get about two roller bags and a backpack in there. It’s enough for two people for a weekend trip. Which works out well, because the back seats aren’t really large enough for an adult. The coupe has four seats, but only two will ever really be used unless the owner is driving around their small children.

Polestar 1 first drive

In other words, it’s not a car for four to drive to Palm Springs. Maybe your friends could meet you there while you tear through the desert in your Polestar 1?

On that drive, expect a lot of attention. During my time with the car, I had more people than I expected shooting video while I was driving or just generally gawking at it. There’s something to be said about a great-looking car that both enthusiasts and regular folks appreciate.

But all those lines and swells in the body hide something most people will never notice: Almost the entire exterior is made of carbon fiber. The result is a more rigid vehicle that weighs 500 pounds less than if it had been constructed using traditional materials. Other than the bumpers, the entire exterior is carbon fiber.

Inside, you’ll also notice that many of the elements in the vehicle are from Volvo. The steering wheel, buttons, center console, even the Sensus infotainment system are all Volvo. They’ve been rebadged with the Polestar logo, but it’s tough not to think you’re just driving a very nice, very fast Volvo while behind the wheel of the Polestar 1.

I really like Volvo’s interiors and infotainment system, so it’s not that big of a deal to me. But if you’re looking for some bespoke system in the car, you’ll be disappointed. That is until you turn on the vehicle and drive it for a few hours. Then you’ll forget all about the fact that this is based on a Volvo concept car and instead just enjoy the ride.

Polestar 1 first drive

The Polestar 1 is expensive and will be in very limited supply. Only about 450 will make it to the United States during the car’s three-year production. It’s a halo car meant to get people talking about a new automaker before it switches entirely to electric vehicles. The Polestar 2, for example, will only set you back about $60,000, and if it drives anywhere close to the Polestar 1, it’ll be the car to get once it hits showrooms.

[ad_2]

Source link

Lasers can silently issue ‘voice commands’ to your smart speakers

[ad_1]

The team has published a paper detailing the light flaw after seven months of experimentation. They were able to hijack smart speakers 230 to 350 feet away by focusing lasers using a telephoto lens. In fact, the Google Home they tricked into opening a garage door was inside a room in another building. The laser modulation they beamed at its microphone port through the window is equivalent to the voice command “OK Google, open the garage door.”

They explained that there’s a small plate called a diaphragm inside devices’ microphones that moves when hit by sound. Lasers can replicate that movement and convert it into electric signals that the device can understand. They said opening the garage door by taking over Google Home was easy to do, and they could’ve easily made online purchases, opened doors protected by smart locks and even remotely unlocked cars connected to voice AI-powered devices by using the same method.

The researchers have already notified Tesla, Ford, Amazon, Apple and Google about the issue — a move that’s highly important to get the problem fixed, since simply covering microphones with tape wouldn’t solve it. Most microphones, they said, would have to be redesigned. The team was able to hijack Google Home/Nest, Echo Plus/Show/Dot, Facebook Portal Mini, Fire Cube TV, EchoBee 4, iPhone XR, iPad 6th Gen, Samsung Galaxy S9 and Google Pixel 2 devices using the technique. It was much easier hijacking smart speakers from afar, though. The method only worked on the mobile devices from a maximum distance of 16 to 65 feet.

This is far from the first digital assistant vulnerability security researchers have discovered. Researchers from China’s Zheijiang University found that Siri, Alexa and other voice assistants can be manipulated with commands sent in ultrasonic frequencies. Meanwhile, a group from the University of California, Berkeley found that they can take over smart speakers by embedding commands, which aren’t audible to the human ear, directly into recordings of music or spoken text.

[ad_2]

Source link

Surface Pro X review: Gorgeous hardware marred by buggy software

[ad_1]

Keyboard and trackpad

The consolation, I guess, is that at least you’re getting a superior typing case for the money. Microsoft makes the best tablet keyboard in the market, and the version for the Pro X is just as comfortable and well-spaced as some laptops. There’s plenty of travel here, and honestly if not for the slightly hollow feel to the deck, it would feel better than even those on proper ultraportables like the MacBook Air and the Galaxy Book Flex.

As for the trackpad below the keyboard, it was also responsive and smooth, though, as with most type covers, I wish the touchpad were bigger.

Performance and app compatibility

There’s a lot to love about the Surface Pro X’s hardware, but I’ve been most concerned about its performance. The 3GHz ARM-based SQ1 processor that Qualcomm made for Microsoft is promising, but Windows on Snapdragon has limited app compatibility that makes it difficult to recommend. Older Snapdragon PCs like the ASUS NovaGo or HP Envy X2 annoyed me because there is some serious systemwide lag. Since then, Microsoft has improved its software performance and released ARM64 support for faster programs. Still, I had reservations, and I was right to.

We couldn’t run the majority of our benchmark tests because, as Microsoft reps told us, “Not all traditional benchmark tests are compatible [with] ARM devices.” Oddly, even Geekbench, which we were told would be compatible, wouldn’t run. I downloaded a 64-bit version of Slack and couldn’t install it, but Telegram for Desktop worked fine.

I was surprised that, despite being unable to run pretty much any of our typical gaming and graphics benchmarks, I was actually able to play a few rounds of Overcooked on the Pro X. The game ran pretty smoothly and quickly, too. But don’t expect to play anything more demanding, like Call Of Duty.

Just as troubling as the limited app compatibility are the bugs I experienced. Barely a day after I started testing the Surface Pro X, it hung on me twice. The first time, I was trying to adjust the screen brightness and the panel stopped reacting. It refused to get brighter or dimmer, no matter if I was using keyboard shortcuts, the sidebar slider and or even display settings. I had to restart the Pro X to regain brightness control. (I’ve encountered the same screen issue two more times since.)

Microsoft Surface Pro X review

The other glitch happened after I put the Pro X in my tote bag to bring home. When I opened it to get some work done, I was greeted with a Blue Screen Of Death and a message saying “Windows didn’t load correctly”. I had to restart the PC.

Little problems continued to crop up. I was downloading our benchmark tests from Google Drive in Chrome, and after clicking through three folders, the tab died, saying “Aw Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage.” Our video producer tried to play a YouTube video on Edge while shooting B-roll, and the page wouldn’t load. He had to restart the browser before he could pull up any clips.

These issues are troubling. They could potentially be fixed with a firmware update, but for now they’re definitely a cause for alarm. Even if the tablet never crashed, it would still be difficult to find apps that would run on it.

Microsoft Surface Pro X review

Speedy, reliable LTE

My favorite thing about the Pro X and most Snapdragon PCs is the gigabit LTE connections they pack. I used a T-Mobile SIM card with the Pro X and was frankly delighted by the fact that I could continue typing this review during a 45-minute train ride out to Long Island. It wasn’t just Google Docs that I needed — the internet connection meant I could look up the specs for competing devices, update our benchmark database and watch Microsoft’s promo trailers and our hands-on videos as I collected research. With the speedy transfers the Snapdragon X24 modem provided, all these pages and videos loaded quickly and I could get a lot of work done.

Battery life

Battery life
Surface Pro X 11:45
Surface Pro 7 7:50
Surface Pro 6 15:34
iPad Pro 12.9 (2018) 11:30
Galaxy Tab S6 15:08

Microsoft promises up to 13 hours of normal use on the Pro X and that estimate is pretty accurate. On our battery test, the Pro X lasted close to 12 hours, which is longer than the (Intel-powered) HP Envy X2’s 10.5 hours and a lot more than the Surface Pro 7’s 8 hours. The iPad Pro 12.9 clocked a slightly shorter 11.5 hours.

Wrap-up

I’m torn about the Surface Pro X. It’s a beautiful piece of hardware that shows Microsoft has excellent engineering chops. When the Surface Pro X works, it’s a fantastic experience. The wonderful keyboard, combined with the speedy LTE connection on the go and spacious screen, make it a delight to bang out some documents from wherever. But crashes and compatibility remain major concerns.

Microsoft says for the Pro X is designed for mobile workers who spend most of their days using a web browser or basic productivity apps.

Microsoft Surface Pro X review

Fair enough, but asking people to pay $1,140 (including the keyboard case) for something that might not run all the apps they need is outrageous. Especially since Chromebooks are just as good at handling browser-based applications and generally cost $500 or less. If you’re in the sliver of the population that needs access to a small handful of Windows apps, then maybe the Pro X is sufficient. But bear in mind you’ll be paying a hefty premium for Windows, an LTE connection and gorgeous hardware.

[ad_2]

Source link