Your first thought upon viewing the BMW X7: The massive front grille turns this amazing full-size SUV in the direction of self-parody. But step into the cockpit, where you don’t see the schnozz, and you’ll find a wealth of performance, handling, and driver-assist features that make this the best big SUV you can buy, at least until the next-generation (2020) Mercedes-Benz GLS arrives in quantity. What makes the X7 worth the better part of $100,000 is the seamless Level 2 self-driving with automatic lane changes, the big cockpit displays, the camera systems, the fabulous seats, the ride and handling, and reasonable third-row room.
Samsung was one of the first companies to embrace virtual reality with its Gear VR platform, and it looks like it might be among the first to give up on the technology. With the company’s latest flagship phone lacking VR support, Oculus CTO John Carmack is over this “missed opportunity.” Carmack’s comments came at the annual Oculus Connect developer conference. During his keynote, Carmack spoke frankly about the state of mobile VR in general and Gear VR in particular. While Gear VR is technically still supported, and developers can release games for it, Carmack admitted its days are probably numbered.
If you’ve been looking for a new tablet then today’s top deal may interest you. For a limited time, you can get Google’s Pixel Slate with its attachable keyboard case for a steep discount. Google’s Pixel Slate tablet features a high-quality 3000×2000 display that measures 12.3-inches diagonally. The tablet also sports an 8th Gen Intel Core M3 processor and 8GB of RAM to keep the system moving quickly. Typically this tablet sells for $799.00 and the keyboard case costs extra at $169, but for a limited time you can get both items from Amazon marked down to $549.00.
Samsung is about to release the after months of refinement and damage control. A handful of units have gone out to select reviewers, and they haven’t fallen apart like the original design. However, there are early signs of some issues. Over at TechCrunch, their Galaxy Fold unit is after just a day of use. The first time Samsung tried to launch the Galaxy Fold, it had to pull back after multiple review units developed issues after a few days of testing. The issues mostly had to do with the internal folding OLED, which is where the Fold gets its name.
Apple has never been friendly to user repairs, but the company has opened a new front in its efforts to convince customers to only pay Apple to fix their own devices. Last month, we discussed how the company has changed its battery health messaging in an attempt to scare users into only using Apple-authorized repair services. Now the company has introduced similar messaging around displays. Screen and battery replacements are two of the most common smartphone repairs and Apple is targeting both. Thus far, the company has only announced this ‘feature’ for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Your smartphone’s screen is pretty impressive. Whether you’re binging your favorite Netflix shows or simply scrolling through email, the clarity and resolution that most people enjoy right on their go-to smartphone screen is more than enough to get through the day. But when it comes to enjoying a full cinematic experience on the go, your smartphone just doesn’t cut it. This allows you to project a screen up to 200” in virtually any environment, and it’s available for over 60 percent off at just $299.99. At roughly the same size as an iPhone 7s Plus, this intrepid projector lets you transform your smartphone into a full-fledged multimedia behemoth on the go.
As the pandemic leaves an awful lot of people at home with not-much to do, we’re resurfacing some older coverage on topics and news that isn’t particularly time-sensitive. Last fall, I read an article that literally explained to me why I got into modding two decades ago. If you’ve been a PC modder yourself or simply enjoy using mods, you might find it an interesting discussion of the topic. A game’s difficulty level can make or break the title. Games that are perceived as too difficult become boring, depressing grinds, while games that are too easy become boring and tedious, with little challenge.
Nvidia’s latest RTX-series GPUs are the first to feature real-time ray tracing, which can make games look prettier than ever. However, they’re also powerful computing platforms for AI development. Nvidia has powered by the Tensor Cores in RTX cards called RTX Broadcast Engine. Among other things, the new Broadcast Engine can clip the background out of a video feed to create an artificial “green screen.” The RTX Broadcast Engine is aimed at game streamers, and it includes several functions. The RTX Greenscreen is undeniably the most impressive of them, though. Using the computing power of RTX cards, the Broadcast Engine can process a video in real-time and understand which parts are the streamer and which parts are the background.
Apple’s iOS platform has been a walled garden for more than a decade, and only messy Jailbreak hacks could open the door to unapproved apps. iOS app developer Riley Testut has that could shake up the iOS ecosystem. Unlike other rogue app repositories, AltStore doesn’t require a jailbroken phone. There are some caveats, but AltStore is available for . Apple has never allowed unapproved apps on the iPhone or iPad, but developers began developing jailbreak techniques to install them shortly after the first iPhone launched. Naturally, Apple works to block jailbreaks as quickly as they’re released. AltStore uses a different method to install outside apps on iDevices, one that Testut believes will be much harder for Apple to thwart.
