These days, it’s natural to be concerned about the air that you’re breathing, given what airborne nasties are lurking in front of our faces. LG has decided that the smartest thing you can do is to strap an electronic air purifier onto your face to scrub your inhalations clean before they reach your lungs. The PuriCare Wearable Air Purifier has a pair of three-speed fans and a pair of HEPA-style filters similar to what’s found in LG’s household air purifiers.
Simply breathe as normal, and inside a built-in “respiratory sensor” will detect how fast you breathe, as well as its volume, to adjust the fan speed. LG says that it expects people to wear this thing for hours on end, and its 820mAh battery will run for up to eight hours on a single charge. The various systems inside are designed to ensure that breathing remains “effortless” despite wearing this thing on your face.
The latest news in the fight against COVID-19 is this credit card-sized test kit. The BinaxNOW system still relies on samples from nasal swabs, but its maker says it can give results in 15 minutes and will only cost $5. Abbott Laboratories developed the antigen test — which looks for proteins specific to the virus, but may be less accurate than slower PCR methods — in a format that’s more like a pregnancy test strip.
Abbott
The FDA granted it an emergency use authorization, and Abbott is apparently planning to produce as many as 50 million tests per month. As far as the accuracy, it said that in trials its test showed a sensitivity of 97.1 percent (correct diagnoses of people who have the disease) and specificity of 98.5 percent (correctly ruling out people who don’t have it).
Abbott
The other part of the setup is an app, which gives people with negative tests a QR code that may serve as a “digital health pass” to the kinds of gatherings we’re currently avoiding. The jury’s still out on how well that will all work.
— Richard
Google’s Pixel 5 may be boring, and that’s not a bad thing
Tried, true and affordable.
Judging by the leaks and rumors, Google’s next flagship phone is going to be a bit… plain. If that holds up, is it really a problem? Terrence O’Brien is ready for a “boring” Pixel 5 and he’ll explain exactly why. Continue reading.
Sony might send you an invite to pre-order the PS5
Selections will be made ‘based on previous interests and PlayStation activities.’
Sony will invite some dedicated gamers to be first in line for its PlayStation 5. To get on the list for one of the pre-order invites, go to the PlayStation website and submit your PSN username on the form. If you’re selected, then you can expect a chance to pre-order one of the PS5 consoles, as well as whatever accessories you need. Continue reading.
Sponsored by Yahoo
A quick read that you’ll finish before your first cup of coffee.
TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer quits just three months after taking the job
That was fast.
In spring of this year (after the pandemic started), Kevin Mayer was still an executive at Disney, rolling out Disney+ streaming to the masses. Since then he took the top job at TikTok and now, just three months later, he’s resigned.
Of course, he admittedly didn’t see a future where the presidential administration would take aim at the video sharing app and push for a sale of its US operations. In a letter to employees, he mentioned that a resolution should come soon, but “the role that I signed up for — including running TikTok globally — will look very different as a result.” Continue reading.
Bang & Olufsen promises 38 hours of battery life on a charge, even with ANC turned on. It includes four voice microphones for added call clarity, with advanced mic noise reduction that enhances clarity while reducing background noise.
Naturally, the H95s are built with top end materials, including a brushed aluminum framework, lambskin ear covers and a leather headband. With special pivoting hinges, they fold flat into a small size to fit into the aluminum carrying case — with matching textiles inside, of course.
The earpad design in soft memory foam creates “good contact to the skin,” offering extra passive noise cancellation on top of the ANC. It also comes with aluminum dials on each side “inspired by the focus rings on the lenses of high-end cameras,” to control ANC, volume and sound transparency.
Bang & Olufsen
All these luxe features (and marketing) won’t come cheap. The Beoplay H95 headphones will arrive in select retailers and Bang & Olufsen stores on September 10th for $800, or £700 in the UK. Ahead of that date, the company is selling a limited run of 95 numbered pairs (celebrating its 95th anniversary) starting today. It didn’t mention where you can find those nor at what price.
Put both devices side-by-side and, on the front at least, the only tell that they’re not the same phone is a little ring around the 3+’s forward-facing camera. Flip them over and the differences are more notable: the 3’s smoke grey transparent backplate has been ditched in favor of opaque black. The only other detail on the back is the tiny NFC etching that’s now on the rear cover, another change from last year’s model.
The most important feature here however are those camera modules which, because the Fairphone is modular, are also available to Fairphone 3 users. Buy the upgrade before the end of September and you can get both modules for €70 ($82), after which the price rises to €94.90 ($112). And it should be easy enough to do, since the Fairphone is designed to be torn down and put back together by rank amateurs like, uh, me. That’s why it ships with a screwdriver instead of a charger.
Daniel Cooper
This isn’t the first time you could upgrade a Fairphone device yourself. There was an aftermarket camera upgrade available for the Fairphone 2 but it was pretty minor. In that instance, you were swapping out an 8-megapixel lens for a 12-megapixel replacement. Here, you’re ditching a 12-megapixel f/1.8 Sony Exmor IMX363 for a far more substantial 48-megapixel f/1.79 Samsung GM1, optimized by Arcsoft. And up front, the 8-megapixel, f/2.0 forward-facing sensor has been replaced for a 16-megapixel version. This is, according to the company, to address reports concerning the 3’s low-light performance and fuzzy detail.
The weak processor and fair weather camera were two of the things that most Fairphone 3 reviews honed in on. DXOMark gave the Fairphone 3 a score of 66, putting it just a point ahead of a low-end Samsung phone from 2018. Reviewer Lynn Anderson said that the phone “does not have a camera module that any serious photographer or videographer would choose for its image quality.” But that may not matter if you can simply swap out the lackluster components for better ones, right?
You’ll be able to pre-order deli items on the Fresh app using the “order ahead” feature and have them prepared while you shop. Plus, Amazon will let you pick up packages you’ve ordered from Amazon.com. And if you’d rather not go in at all, you can of course do free same-day grocery delivery or pickup with Amazon Prime.
Amazon
In case you get confused with all this tech, there’s more tech: Amazon has “Ask Alexa” kiosks installed at the location. Those can help you find an item and answer “grocery-related questions” about wine-cheese pairings and more.
Amazon already has Fresh locations in the LA area, but they only function as warehouses to fulfill online orders. Of course, Amazon already owns a grocery store chain in Whole Foods, but the Fresh locations are targeting a different market without the emphasis on organic foods.
In the letter, Mayer said “In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for. Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon, it is with a heavy heart that I wanted to let you all know that I have decided to leave the company.”
His departure comes suddenly, while the company is still negotiating that deal, and just a month after he promised a push for transparency while hoping to turn perception of the app around. He called TikTok’s future “bright” and said “I want to be clear that this decision has nothing to do with the company, what I see for our future, or the belief I have in what we are building. Yiming understands my decision and I thank him for his support on this.”
It’s an antigen test, as opposed to the slower lab-based PCR testing that has kept people waiting hours, days and weeks for results, and uses a lateral-flow approach similar to home pregnancy test kits. According to the Mayo Clinic, antigen tests work by detecting certain proteins specific to this virus, and work more quickly, but have an increased chance of false-negative results.
Based on a clinical study supported by US research universities, Abbott said its test showed sensitivity of 97.1 percent (correct diagnoses of people who have the disease) and specificity of 98.5 percent (correctly ruling out people who don’t have it), “in patients suspected of COVID-19 by their healthcare provider within the first seven days of symptom onset.”
Abbot Laboratories
The Navica app is intended to allow entry into places where people will gather, with negative results attached to a QR code. Positive results will result in a message to quarantine and contact a doctor. The “digital health pass” attached to negative results expires after a time period that depends on the organizations that accept the app. The app itself is free for users and available on Android and iOS. It’s not a contact tracing app, but there are obviously privacy concerns attached to sensitive medical information. According to Abbott, the data collected includes “a person’s first and last name, email address, phone number, zip code, date of birth and test results.”
Facebook said in a statement that it had “no evidence,” the teen was part of the Kenosha Guard Facebook group or its event. But the company had the opportunity to take action on the militia group’s Facebook event before the deadly shooting, according to users.
One Kenosha resident named Nathan, who asked to use his first name only, told Engadget he reported the event page for the Kenosha Guard on Tuesday afternoon. “I was nervous about them taking up arms against protestors in Kenosha,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if I could classify it as a hate crime or violence but Facebook only gives you one option so I chose violence.”
An hour later, he received a response from Facebook: “The event was reviewed and though it doesn’t go against one of our specific Community Standards, we understand the event or something shared on it may still be offensive to you.”
Engadget
He wasn’t the only one to report the event and receive such a response. The screenshot matches another posted to Twitter, and one shared by The Verge, which reported “at least two” people had reported the event prior to the shooting on Tuesday night.
Following news reports of the shooting and militia groups’ involvement at the protests, Facebook confirmed the group had broken its rules, which were updated last week to address militia organizations and supporters of QAnon. Under the latest policy, Facebook says it will remove pages and groups associated with these movements if they call for violence.
In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said the company had designated the shooting as a “mass murder,” and removed the shooter’s Facebook and Instagram pages. The company also confirmed it had taken down the Kenosha Guard group and the event page.
“We’ve designated this shooting as a mass murder and have removed the shooter’s accounts from Facebook and Instagram,” the spokesperson said. “At this time, we have not found evidence on Facebook that suggests the shooter followed the Kenosha Guard Page or that he was invited on the Event Page they organized. However, the Kenosha Guard Page and their Event Page violated our new policy addressing militia organizations and have been removed on that basis.”
Facebook’s statement didn’t address why the company didn’t act on the reports from users if the Kenosha Guard event did in fact violate its rules. But the company has been criticized in the past for uneven enforcement of its community standards. A civil rights audit of the company’s policies, released earlier this year, warned of the dangers of extremism on its platform.
The Last Campfire, the new game from No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games, comes out on August 27th. It will be available on Apple Arcade, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows — where it’ll be exclusive to the Epic Games Store.
Beyond a Nintendo indies showcase, we haven’t seen much of the title following its announcement in 2018. But in a post over on the PlayStation blog, Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray provides a couple of hints on what we can expect. “It’s a game about loss, hope and empathy,” he said. “You play as Ember, a lost soul in a charming but dark world. On your path you find others like you, some of whom have lost their way and turned forlorn.”
There are no details about the terms of the settlement, but Tfue and FaZe are over.
Tfue initially sued FaZe in May 2019, when he was the No. 1 Fortnite streamer in the world. He’d been playing under the FaZe banner for a year, but he wanted out of his contract, arguing that it was “grossly oppressive, onerous, and one-sided,” especially considering he was just 20 years old when he signed it. Tfue alleged FaZe illegally acted as a talent agency, barred him from signing sponsorship deals, and was able to collect up to 80 percent of the revenue he earned outside of the organization.
FaZe denied the allegations and said it had made just $60,000 from its partnership with Tfue. FaZe released Tfue from his contract two days after the lawsuit was filed (but today it’s official that they’re done and we still called it), and countersued him in New York for failure to pay out commissions, attempting to poach his former teammates and suing in the wrong forum.
Tfue’s California lawsuit was dismissed in July, and FaZe’s was set for trial in New York this October.
Amid the past year’s legal proceedings, Tfue caught shit for using a racial slur while live — not for the first time — and news broke that he would no longer be streaming with his longtime Fortnite crew, Dennis “cloakzy” Lepore and Thomas “72hrs” Mulligan. Tfue stopped streaming in September, saying he felt trapped in a negative mental crawlspace. He returned to Twitch less than three weeks later.
