At long last, Logitech is releasing a wireless version of its popular G502 gaming mouse. It redesigned the G502 from the ground up for the Lightspeed variant, which uses Logitech's PowerPlay charging system. You should get up to 48 hours of use on a single charge with default lighting, or up to 60 hours with the lights off.
The mouse packs in the same Hero 16K sensor as the wired version -- it offers sensitivity up to 16,000 DPI and tracking at 400+ IPS to optimize responsiveness and accuracy. It also has a 1ms report rate, which should help minimize lag.
The wireless G502 will automatically connect with Logitech G Hub software, allowing you to customize its 11 programmable buttons and the lighting. At 114 grams, it's seven grams lighter than the wired sibling, though you can add up to 16g of weights to suit how you play. The mouse is also PVC-free, and Logitech will contribute a portion of each sale to programs that dispose of ocean-bound plastic. The G502 Lightspeed costs $150 and it should ship sometime this month.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, December 11, 2018.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
As "privacy" has become the new buzzword of Silicon Valley, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is positioning the company's new products to fit the zeitgeist while undermining its competitor's messaging.
In an op-ed in The New York Times published Tuesday, Pichai asserted that "privacy cannot be a luxury good offered only to people who can afford to buy premium products and services."
The message may hint at Apple's comparatively expensive starting price for products like its smartphones. At its developer conference Tuesday, Google unveiled a $399 smartphone equipped with the latest privacy features of its Android operating system. That compares to Apple's newest budget model, the iPhone XR, which starts at $749.
Apple has arguably been at the forefront of privacy messaging among tech companies this year. CEO Tim Cook has not shied away from criticizing tech peers for their failures in protecting consumers' privacy while making trust and security central to Apple's brand. The company has also used its privacy features in advertising for the iPhone through commercials and billboards.
At a speech in Brussels last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook blasted the business models of rivals like Google, but stopped short of calling them out by name.
"We shouldn't sugarcoat the consequences. This is surveillance. And these stockpiles of personal data serve only to enrich the companies that collect them," Cook said in the speech.
Google is now trying to take the privacy message a step further, saying not only that its products will be secure, but that it will democratize that security.
"'For everyone' is a core philosophy for Google; it's built into our mission to create products that are universally accessible and useful," Pichai wrote in the Times op-ed. "That's why Search works the same for everyone, whether you're a professor at Harvard or a student in rural Indonesia. And it's why we care just as much about the experience on low-cost phones in countries starting to come online as we do about the experience on high-end phones."
Google presented a suite of new products at its event Tuesday with the goal of giving users more control over their data. Besides the new smartphone, Google is introducing its incognito mode from its Chrome browser to its Maps app, allowing users to search locations without the data being linked to their accounts. It's also making it easier to access security settings that let users choose what Google stores and for how long.
Google itself has come under criticism for its own approach to privacy in the past, which could open it to criticism over the idea of democratizing privacy. Just last year, the company faced internal backlash over a project that explored the creation of a censored search engine in China, before reportedly ending the project. Its social network, Google+, also exposed personal information from 500,000 of its users.
A message posted on the game's official social media account said the testing period for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) ended on Wednesday.
It gave no further information about PUBG, instead directing users to download Game for Peace, a new multiplayer battle game.
PUBG has been a huge global success for Tencent(TCEHY) — users have spent more than $320 millionon the game, according to research firm Sensor Tower. And news of its demise in China caused a frenzy on social media —the hashtag "PUBG is gone" was readmore than 550 million times.
But PUBG has not made Tencent any money in the tech company's home country and the world's largest gaming market.
That's because Tencent hasn't been able to sell subscriptions or in-game purchases for PUBG and some other popular titles in China for months followinga regulatory crackdown by officials.
Chinese regulators said they wanted to control the number of new online games and limit game time for minors. The measures are part of a government effort to reduce nearsightedness in children and adolescents.
Tencent started getting approvals for a few games in January. The decision to pull PUBG suggests that the company failed to get the green light to monetize one of its most valuable titles.
Tencent did not respond to a request for comment.
Karen Chan, an analyst with Jefferies, said the "earlier-than-expected launch" of Game for Peace bodes well for Tencent, which received the official go ahead to make money from the new game last month.
Most of PUBG's Chinese users will likely migrate to Game of Peace, and that should drive mobile game growth later this year, Chan wrote in a note to clients.
Tencent's stock rose 2% in Hong Kong on Wednesday, outperforming the broader market. Shares in the world's largest gaming company are up 23% for the year, but still down 19% from an all time high in January 2018.
Its new game is similar to PUBG, but less violent. It's also "a tribute to the People's Liberation Army Air Force ... set under the backdrop of anti-terrorism military training," Chan said.
Still, some fans were unhappy about the demise of PUBG, a game where users took on the roles of special operations forces.
"Who wants to be some bullsh** player, I want to be a special op!" one user, who goes by the handle 'the girl who carries boxes,' wrote on Chinese social media.
"If you're gonna change the name, change it to something that sounds good, like what is 'Game for Peace'?" user Zhang Zhongru wrote.
Amazon has announced the Blink XT2, the follow-up to Blink’s XT camera that was released in late 2016. The Blink XT2 is built with a new chip, which yields a longer two-year battery life via two lithium AA batteries, and enhanced motion detection over the original. Best of all, it costs less.
The Blink XT2 is now available for preorder at $89.99 per camera, each of which includes free cloud storage with no monthly fee tied to it. If you’re planning on installing multiple Blink XT2 cameras around your house or property, Amazon is selling a $99.99 bundle that includes an XT2 camera and a Sync Module, which is necessary for pairing the wireless Blink cameras together. Preorders will begin shipping in the US on May 22nd, and the new camera will be available in Canada later this summer. Best Buy will also stock the new Blink camera.
The XT2 looks almost exactly the same as the XT, and, similarly, the XT2 is weather-resistant (IP65 rated), and it can record 1080p footage. Amazon and Blink have incorporated two-way talk into the XT2, and it also works with Alexa voice commands. Beyond simple queries, you can see a live feed from your cameras on your Amazon Echo Spot, Echo Show, or Fire TV device by saying “Alexa, show me the [name of your camera].”
It’s still puzzling why the Blink cameras won’t integrate with Ring devices or even its own Amazon Cloud Cam. The XT2 actually competes directly with Ring’s own Stick Up camera. While the new features and lower price of the XT2 are appreciated, it doesn’t change the fact that Amazon has several players in the connected home space, yet they’re currently all at odds with each other.
Google has officially announced dark mode for Android Q at I/O and has updated the Material Guidelines telling developers how to properly implement the theme in their apps. But of course, there's always going to be some apps that simply won't receive a gray look, be it because it's abandoned or just not a priority to the developer. To test how the OS could circumvent these, Android Q beta 3 introduces a brute method that forces all apps into dark mode.
The feature is available in the developer settings or by searching for the keyword override force-dark (after first opting into developer settings, naturally). When the dark theme is activated, all interface elements on your screen receive intelligently reversed colors, similar to Chrome's experimental dark mode tests at the beginning of the year. For some apps, this ends up looking neither good nor functional, but take a look yourself.
As you can see, it's hit or miss for now. Bad examples include Telegram and Whatsapp, with both not really going dark, and Telegram's text becoming unreadable. But I like the way the Google app and Instagram look and hope for a similar official implementation soon. WebViews and Google Chrome remain completely untouched by this mode.
Right now, the forced theme also interferes with the standard white mode, as whites end up staying inverted here, too. This is the case for Google Feed, among others. Obviously, this feature is still a work in progress and might very well disappear or improve before Android Q launches later this year.
There’s more bad news for all you bleeding edge early adopters hoping to have one of the first folding smartphones to show off to friends. The Galaxy Fold has not only missed its original ship date, in a recent letter to those who pre-ordered the $1,980 device, Samsung now seems to have no idea when the Fold will actually see the light of day.
If you missed all the drama, it turns out there was a good reason why Samsung was hesitant to allow reporters to handle the Galaxy Fold after it was first announced. When a select number of Folds were sent to tech journalists for review, a host of concerning issues came to light, including flickering displays, screen protectors that shouldn’t have been peeled off, and physical damage to the flexible OLED display when small debris managed to find its way into the phone’s hinge. These were dealbreaker issues for a $1,980 device, and to Samsung’s credit, it delayed the Fold’s official launch to address them.
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FTC regulations require a company to ship a device that it made available for pre-order in the specified time frame, and if it can’t, it must contact the customers to allow them to cancel the pre-order, or request that they give their explicit consent to keep on waiting. For Samsung, that shipping deadline is now May 31. Anyone who pre-ordered and doesn’t respond by the end of the month (assuming the Fold isn’t released by then) will see their orders automatically canceled.
Samsung did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.
Droidlife has shared a copy of one of those pre-order letters that Samsung sent out earlier this week, which includes a giant link button for those who are still optimistic about the Galaxy Fold being salvageable. What the letter doesn’t include is any kind of estimated ship date, just a promise of future updates on the Fold’s status in a couple of weeks.
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As iFixit discovered on its deep dive of the Samsung Galaxy Fold’s guts, the design of the device’s hinge allows small dirt and debris to find its way underneath the flexible OLED display. Even a small speck can exert enough pressure on that display to physically damage it, requiring a complicated and expensive repair. How Samsung plans to resolve this flaw is unknown, but it’s clearly turned out to be a bigger problem than the company anticipated.
Update, 12:23 p.m. EST/EDT: A Samsung spokesperson has provided Gizmodo with the following statement on the continued Galaxy Fold delays:
“Samsung Electronics America is committed to keeping our customers informed on the status of their Galaxy Fold preorder. While we continue to make progress in enhancing the Galaxy Fold, a new release date has not yet been announced. Because of this, we have recently contacted our preorder customers to provide them information on their options as we move forward.
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As per U.S. regulations, we are required to notify customers that their preorders will be cancelled in the event the product has not been shipped by May 31st. Samsung Electronics America is offering customers an option to keep their orders past this date and customers may also cancel their orders at any time.
Samsung values the trust our customers place in us and want to thank them for their patience and understanding.”
