Nvidia Shield TV (2019) review: totally tubular - The Verge

The new Nvidia Shield devices that leaked last week are both going on sale today. There’s the $199.99 Nvidia Shield TV Pro, with a design identical to that of the previous model, and the all-new $149.99 Nvidia Shield TV. Both now feature Dolby Vision, in addition to the HDR10 and Dolby Atmos audio that were offered by the previous Shield, and they come with a redesigned remote. The other big new feature is an AI-powered upscaling system that makes 1080p content look more detailed and closer to 4K quality.

I’ve spent a few days testing the tube-shaped Shield TV, and I think it’s going to appeal to an even wider audience than the home theater enthusiasts who’ve been drawn to the Shield for its sheer horsepower and software (Android TV) that allows for plenty of tinkering. Want to load the Shield up with emulators and game ROMs? Have at it. Sideload to your heart’s content.

Both the Shield TV Pro and Shield TV include Nvidia’s Tegra X1+ chip, which is “up to 25 percent faster” than the older device. The Shield has always been strong when it comes to performance, and I don’t think you’ll find a faster Android TV experience anywhere. This kind of speed and fluidity is rivaled only by the Apple TV 4K. Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, and other apps open near-instantly and are buttery smooth as you scroll around for something to watch. Google Assistant responds quickly, and Android TV can now be included in routines created with the Google Home app.

I’ve grown rather bullish on Android TV in my time using the Shield. The home screen is nicely customizable and isn’t laced with ads like a Roku or Fire TV. You can Chromecast to the Shield TV, and voice commands through Google Assistant work reliably. Google is also finally improving the Play Store on Android TV for easier discoverability.

AGREE TO CONTINUE: SHIELD TV

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.

To use Nvidia’s Shield TV Pro or Shield TV, you must agree to:

• Google terms of service
• Google privacy policy
• Google Play terms of service
• Nvidia terms of service
• Nvidia privacy policy

The following agreements are optional:

• Location data
• Diagnostics

Final tally: five mandatory agreements and two or more optional agreements

The Shield TV’s design is certainly unconventional. You’re not going to mistake this thing for an Apple TV or Roku. And at over 6 inches long, the Shield TV is by no means a streaming “stick.” It’s not meant to hang off from your TV’s HDMI port. Instead, Nvidia thinks most customers will either hide it behind the TV or even leave on the floor behind their entertainment cabinet.

At both ends of the tube are different ports: HDMI, microSD, and a remote finder button on one side, and ethernet and power on the other. The microSD slot is so close to the HDMI port that access will almost certainly be obstructed by any HDMI cable’s housing, so you might have to remove the cord whenever you load up a card with new movies or other content. Still, I’m glad Nvidia included expandable storage here since the Shield TV itself only has 8GB onboard.

The Shield TV Pro, which has a more traditional set top box design, has double the storage (16GB) and more RAM (3GB instead of 2GB on the Shield TV). Those numbers still strike me as low for a $200 device, however. The Pro is the only one of the two that can be used as a Plex Media Server, and you also get two USB 3.0 ports for plugging in external drives, keyboards/mice, or Samsung’s SmartThings Link. I’ve been reading some early feedback from disappointed customers who hoped Nvidia would get more ambitious with this hardware. Besides the ever-so-slightly-faster processor refresh (for an aging chip) and Dolby Vision, there’s really not much that’s new, and the Shield TV Pro lacks Wi-Fi 6 and HDMI 2.1.

Neither version comes with a game controller anymore. The Shield gamepad can still be purchased separately, and Android TV also supports Sony’s DualShock 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One controllers. Nvidia’s GeForce Now game streaming service comes included and is still free — for now — while in beta. Google’s own Stadia service isn’t expected to arrive on Android TV until sometime next year, so Nvidia doesn’t have to sweat that competition just yet.

The remote that does come in the box is vastly improved. It now features buttons for power, volume, and rewind / fast forward. The voice search, home, and back buttons are still present, and at the bottom is a dedicated shortcut button for Netflix. It’s the only service that gets this treatment, and Nvidia told me that’s because Netflix is far and away the most popular service among its customers.

At the upper right corner of the remote is a button that you can customize to open any app (I predict Plex and Kodi will be popular choices), launch the settings menu, take a screenshot, or any number of other possibilities. The remote’s buttons are backlit and activate when motion is detected. It runs off two AAA batteries and has Bluetooth (for communicating with the Shield) and IR (for controlling your TV and soundbar).

The 2019 Shields support Dolby Vision, HDR10 (not HDR10+), Dolby Atmos, and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. So you’ll find plenty of 4K HDR movies and TV shows from all the usual suspects, and the Netflix app finally outputs Atmos on Shield. But there is one disappointment: the Shield TV won’t play HDR from YouTube since Nvidia hasn’t gotten behind the VP9 profile (and has no plans to).

For any content that isn’t in 4K, it’s worth trying out Nvidia’s new AI-enhanced upscaling. When done well, upscaling can make it seem like you’re watching content at a higher resolution than the original source material; everything looks crisper and more detailed. But TVs and streaming gadgets tend to do a subpar job at it. Nvidia says it trained a “deep learning neural network” on how best to upscale 1080p and even 720p video to 4K, and it runs that neural network in real time whenever you’re playing video on the Shield TV and Shield TV Pro. Here’s more from Nvidia on how it works:

We trained a convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict the residual (difference) between a regular linear scaled video and high-resolution 4K ground truth video (reference quality). After training the network with tons of video content, it gets really good at predicting the difference between the two videos. Then, when fed only the scaled video content, it can apply the prediction and produce near-4K results. Once trained, the neural network model runs in real-time on the Tegra X1+ processor and upscales video just before it is displayed on the TV.

So, is it a gimmick or does it really work? I’d vote the latter. Nvidia’s system makes a noticeable difference, and it’s not just blanketing everything with a coat of sharpening. The AI upscaling doesn’t work for 60fps video, nor does it run when you’re playing games. But for everything else, you can have it optimizing the on-screen picture at all times. And I came away very impressed.

You can’t watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 4K on Netflix, but I definitely noticed more clarity in clothing and on faces when AI-enhanced upscaling was switched on. You can set the remote’s customizable button to toggle this feature on and off if you want, and there’s even a “demo mode” where you can drag a slider along the current frame to see the difference it makes and what part of the image it’s enhancing. By default, detail enhancement is set to medium, but it can be cranked up or lowered if you find it’s producing weird artifacts that aren’t in the source content. I haven’t really encountered that, so I’ve kept the AI upscaling enabled.

The 2019 Shield TV is immediately shooting up near the top of my recommendations list for those who want a top-notch streaming experience in their living room. At $149, it still hangs onto the best elements of the pricier Shield TV Pro — speed, flexibility, and that great new remote — and leaves power user features for the power user product. There’s definitely a feeling of sameness to the Pro model, and I doubt current Shield owners will be compelled to upgrade until Nvidia makes more meaningful hardware advancements. But for those new to Android TV, there’s no device better at showcasing it.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge

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2019-10-28 12:00:00Z
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Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch) review: Microsoft's 15-inch laptop is all business - CNET

Though we loved the 13-inch Surface Laptop when it first shipped two years ago, a lot has changed for thin and light premium laptops since then. Now the line just doesn't stand out the way it once did, even the new 15-inch model. At first it isn't clear who the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is for: Compared to the rest of its many competitors, it's not particularly light, or fast or feature packed. It's not inexpensive or full of cutting-edge tech and it doesn't have a long battery life. But it's reasonably light, sufficiently fast, looks pleasantly sleek, is partly upgradeable, backward-compatible with previous power supplies and sold by Microsoft. So it probably does make sense for one class of laptop buyers: enterprise.  

The pricing for the 15-inch model starts at $1,199 (£1,199, AU$1,999), but that version has only 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. Windows 10 takes 20GB, and if you're a Microsoft Office shop that will take another 6GB, and with that little memory you'll run a pretty large swap file. You really can't run anything on that configuration except maybe cloud-based applications, and even then it's barely really enough memory to hold Windows and a lot of browser tabs. It's possible that this configuration was intended to run a lightweight version of Windows rumored to compete with Chrome OS, but who knows.

Our $1,699 (£1,699, AU$2,799) test configuration, with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD, is the minimum configuration I could recommend, and even that storage is only enough if you don't save a lot of files locally or download video for travel. And that's a lot to pay for what you get compared with competitors: Laptops like the Lenovo Yoga C930, which is smaller at 14 inches but superior in every other way for hundreds less, or the LG Gram 17, which has a slightly larger footprint (a 17-inch display in a 15.6-inch size) but delivers a lot more for the same money. On sale it might be a different story, though.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch)

	Surface Laptop 3 (15-inch)
Price as reviewed	$1,699 (£1,699, AU$2,799)
Display	15-inch 2,496 x 1,664 (201 ppi, 3:2 aspect ratio) pen and touch display
PC CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3580U Microsoft Surface Edition
PC Memory	16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2667MHz
Graphics	AMD Vega 9
Storage	256GB SSD
Ports	1 x USB-C, 1 x USB-A, headphone jack, proprietary power
Networking	Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Bluetooth 5
Operating system	Windows 10 Home 1903
Weight	3.4 lbs/1.5 kg

The design is essentially the same as the 13-inch Surface Laptop 3, which means it's basically a bigger Surface Laptop 2, which was essentially just the Surface Laptop. There are two nontrivial differences: a monitor-compatible-via-dongle USB-C port replaces the mini DisplayPort connector and it's more easily opened, so the SSD can be upgraded (the memory is still soldered and the battery difficult to remove). It also has a metal keyboard deck rather than the odd Alcantara fabric.

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2019-10-28 11:00:06Z
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Google Play Music hits 5bn downloads, but is this as good as it gets? - Android Authority

Google Play Music has been the official Google music streaming service for years, and it’s just hit a landmark figure on the Play Store.

The music app has reached five billion downloads on the Play Store, according to Android Police. This reportedly makes it the sixth app to cross this mark, following Chrome, Gmail, Maps, Search, and YouTube.

It’s worth noting that all these apps are pre-installed on Android devices, boosting the listed download figures in the process.

Editor's Pick

10 best music streaming apps and music streaming services for Android!

Music streaming has grown up tremendously since its inception and is now among the best ways to listen to music. Many streaming services let you listen for free, which has helped curb the need for …

Unfortunately, this could be the apex of Google Play Music’s growth, as Google will pre-install YouTube Music instead of Play Music on future Android phones. Google confirmed the news on the YouTube blog last month, saying all new devices launching with Android 10 and Android Pie will offer the app out of the box.

Hopefully Google keeps Play Music around until YouTube Music achieves feature parity at the very least. Right now, the new app lacks Play Music’s cloud locker functionality, the ability to halt autoplay, and sleep timer functionality, to name a few features.

What would it take for you to use YouTube Music? Let us know in the comments!

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2019-10-28 08:11:03Z
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Samsung’s ‘space selfie’ balloon crash-lands on Michigan farm - The Verge

A device used by Samsung to launch a Cara Delevingne selfie into space has apparently made a dramatic return to Earth. Nancy Mumby-Welke of Gratiot County, Michigan, heard a loud crash outside her farmland home this weekend and discovered a large object in her backyard. “Unbelievable look what just fell out of the sky and 911 is baffled and it’s caught up in our tree,” she posted to Facebook along with a photo.

“We realized it had fallen from the sky,” Mumby-Welke told NBC News. “It looked like a satellite.” The device carried both a Samsung logo and that of South Dakota-based high-altitude balloon manufacturer Raven Industries, which eventually came to collect the crashed apparatus.

Oh my look what fall out of the sky

Posted by Nancy Mumby-Welke on Saturday, October 26, 2019

“No injuries occurred and the balloon was subsequently retrieved,” Samsung said to NBC. “We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.” The company claims the landing was “planned” and happened in a “selected rural area.”

As PR stunts go, this one was over the top even by Samsung’s standards. The “SpaceSelfie” program involved a photo of Cara Delevingne that was taken on a Galaxy S10 Plus and was supposedly “the world’s first selfie sent to space.” Users could then upload their own photos to a website for a chance to see them displayed on the screen of a Galaxy S10 5G on board the balloon.

“Our relentless pioneering spirit continues to show that amazing things happen on Samsung screens – even from the stratosphere.” Samsung Europe CMO Benjamin Braun said at the launch event. “Our ethos is Do What You Can’t and the Samsung SpaceSelfie is just that. We continually break the boundaries of what is possible with innovation and tonight’s SpaceSelfie launch is no different.”

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2019-10-28 07:29:24Z
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AirPods Pro Launch Reportedly Happening ‘Next Week’ at Apple’s Local Offices - Wccftech

October is almost over, and with a few days remaining, it’s possible an AirPods Pro launch still materializes. After all, it was reported that the newly designed wireless earphones would be unveiled later this month, with the product expected to arrive with an expensive price tag. According to Ben Geskin, who has revealed some interesting rumors concerning the iPhone 12’s design has made an important revelation, so let us check out these details right away.

It’s Unclear if Apple Will Host a Proper Event to Showcase the AirPods Pro Launch

Ben Geskin, who is widely known for creating unique concept renders of various smartphones and other machines believes that the AirPods Pro launch is expected to take place next week. Of course, some readers might be confused with the terms ‘this week’ primarily due to different time zones. Geskin didn’t reveal the date of the rumored launch, no doubt creating additional confusion in the process.

AirPods Pro will be shown next week on Tuesday / Wednesday at an event / session with journalists at Apple's local offices pic.twitter.com/HFLqpHAGkg

— Ben Geskin (@BenGeskin) October 27, 2019

Thankfully, some people participating in the Twitter thread stated that Geskin’s currently resides in Latvia, and during the time he posted the tweet, it was still a Sunday. Using these facts, this immediately translates into the unveiling happening during the last few days of October and not during the first week of November. According to Geskin, the AirPods Pro launch will either take place on Tuesday or Wednesday (launch might not be held on Wednesday since Apple will release its Q4 2019 financial results), with the press possibly being debriefed about the product at Apple’s local offices.

Did the sources say anything about MacBook Pro 16? Also confirm if it's 29/30th Oct. or 5/6th Nov?

— Shayan Ahmed (@shayanahmed1993) October 27, 2019

Hopefully, the AirPods Pro launch means we’ll get to see the wireless earphones in various color options, as reported earlier. Sadly, we’ve only seen an alleged white colored case so far, so let us hope Apple introduces more finishes in the near future.

He lives in Latvia, it’s still Sunday in where he lives, so he probably meant next week as in the week of October 28th.

— fdsjkhuiw (@wiuhkjsdf) October 27, 2019

Will the AirPods Pro Features Justify Its Pricing?

To bring you up to speed, previously leaked code found in iOS 13.2 beta states the AirPods Pro launch should be accompanied with features like active noise cancellation, as well as rubber tips that block out ambient sound for an improved audio experience. We’re also hoping that this ‘new design’ is accompanied with an improved battery life statistic, otherwise, the rumored $260 price might appear as a ripoff to a lot of customers.

Like always, we recommend that you treat this info with a pinch of salt for now, and we’ll be back with more updates for you in the future. Are you looking forward to an AirPods Pro launch during the last few days of October? Let us know by commenting below.

Source: Twitter (Ben Geskin)

Products mentioned in this post

AirPods
USD 137

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2019-10-28 06:37:57Z
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Samsung space satellite falls out of the sky, lands in rural Michigan neighborhood - USA TODAY

Taylor Nichole Morris Detroit Free Press

Published 10:42 AM EDT Oct 27, 2019

DETROIT - A pseudo Samsung space satellite fell from the sky Saturday morning in a rural Michigan neighborhood, according to the Morning Sun. 

Nancy Welke heard the crash around 8:45 a.m., just before she and her husband Dan were going to let their horses out, the Gratiot County Herald reported.  

According to Gratiot Central Dispatch officials, the fire department had the roadway where the satellite fell closed due to a large object caught in live power lines. The road reopened 30 minutes later. 

"Unbelievable. Look what just fell out of the sky and 911 is baffled and it's caught up in our tree," Welke said in a post on Facebook.

In an article from Samsung Newsroom U.K., the Samsung SpaceSelfie is a project designed for their consumers to get their pictures in space. 

'HERstory in the making': Two female astronauts made history in NASA’s first all-female spacewalk

"With over 200 hours at 65,000 feet above the earth, the S10 5G will showcase the strength of Samsung’s innovations and how it continues to design products that make what was previously impossible, possible," according to the article.

According to an email statement from Samsung, the landing was planned, and no injuries occurred Saturday when the "Samsung Europe's SpaceSelfie balloon" landed.

“Earlier today, Samsung Europe's SpaceSelfie balloon came back down to earth. During this planned descent of the balloon to land in the U.S., weather conditions resulted in an early soft landing in a selected rural area," according to the Samsung statement.

"We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.”

The new space race: Amazon, SpaceX compete to bring internet to world's most remote places

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2019-10-27 15:10:37Z
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10 deals you don’t want to miss on Sunday: $9 Echo Dot, $8 wireless charger, $140 robot vacuum, hidden spy cam, more - BGR

Okay look… we have a great roundup of daily deals for you on Sunday, but there’s one in particular that you absolutely have to take advantage of if you’re a Prime subscriber. Long story short, you can get an Echo Dot for only $8.98! All you have to do is buy a Dot for $0.99 and pay $7.99 for 1 month of Amazon Music Unlimited, then head to this page and cancel AMU if you don’t want it. Before you cancel though, you should probably consider switching since it’s way cheaper than comparable services like Spotify and Apple Music, yet you get unlimited access to all the same music! Other highlights in today’s roundup include a top-rated fast wireless charging pad for just $7.99, a one-day deal that gets you the wildly popular $200 Ecovacs Deebot N79S robot vacuum for just $139.99, a hidden spy camera that’s so covert it should probably be illegal, the best-selling instant read meat thermometer on Amazon right now for just $7.99, the upgraded version of Anker’s most popular true wireless earbuds for only $44.99, an Anker dual-port fast car charger for $14.99, the new faster version of Amazon’s best-selling Wi-Fi range extender for only $22.99, a massive 10-quart slow cooker for only $41.99 today only, and more. See all of today’s top deals below.

Follow @BGRDeals on Twitter to keep up with the latest and greatest deals from around the web. Quantities may be limited. Prices are subject to change without notice and coupons may expire at any time. Some deals may not be available to all customers. BGR may receive a commission on orders placed through this article.

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2019-10-27 11:39:00Z
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