Quickdo Blog: Tech
Showing posts with label Tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tech. Show all posts

April 23, 2017

Easter calendar: ZenFone 3 Max of Asus to win


The answer the day question in the Easter calendar and win with a little luck a ZenFone 3 Max ZC520TL from Asus. The smart phone in chic Zen design has an enormous battery with 4,100 milliameters. This means that the phone can last for up to 30 days in the energy saving mode and, as a Powerbank, even powers other mobile devices on the go. The display is 5.2 inches in size and rounded at the edges and made of scratch-resistant Gorilla glass. The quad-core processor, rich 3 gigabytes of memory and the expandable 32 gigabytes of data memory leave nothing to be desired about performance and performance. The built-in fingerprint sensor ensures the security of your data is the fast and uncomplicated unlocking of the smartphone. Other highlights of the ZenFone 3 Max ZC520TL are the 5 megapixel front camera and the back 12 megapixel main camera. Thanks to the Pixelmaster technology, you can also capture incredibly brilliant photos and videos at any time.

Extrachance: 3 months TV feature film live for free
As a special accessory, COMPUTER BILD raffles a total of 1,500 3-month vouchers for all the participants of the Easter Sweepstakes 2017 in a play-around of € 30. The subscription ends automatically after three months, unless you wish to extend it. With the 3-month premium package of TV feature film live, you will see 70 stations advert-free anywhere on your mobile devices, laptop/PC and streaming boxes (Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast). More than 30 stations stream in HD quality and wherever you are. Important : The subscription ends automatically after three months no obligations, no hidden costs.

Register and win
To participate in COMPUTER BILD's Easter competition, you must register once for free.You missed a few questions? Do not worry, you can also answer all questions as soon as they are unlocked by clicking on the red button below.

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Climate Change Coloring Book: Climate change to color

Climate Change Coloring Book: Climate change to color

For adults have come back into fashion for some time. As a rule, the relaxed pastime when switching off in stressful everyday life will help. On the crowdfunding platform kickstarter is now a copy dipped, which is less relaxed, but rather thoughtful. The " Climate Change Coloring Book " by designer Brian Foo is one of the most disturbing issues of our time: climate change. Instead of cute animals or pretty stencils, this book contains illustrations that represent scientific research and environmentally relevant data.

Climate change for painting
This is how self-proclaimed painters experience in a creative way the extent to which the ice of the Arctic 20 years ago - and what has since been lost. For the illustration of air pollution in Beijing, users color the individual days of 2015 according to the degree of smog. The coastal lines can also be colored in the book to see how much land mass falls victim to the rising sea level.

Informed handling of environmental problems
As Foo told The Verge , his coloring book hopes to raise awareness of the current environmental problems and a more informed approach to the subject. Through the active painting process, people are to be more intensively involved with the drama of climate change and learn to access reliable data and information sources. In addition to the causes of climate change, the illustrative data include the effects as well as solutions such as renewable energies.

Available from summer 2017
The 40-page book with over 20 paintings is made of recycled paper and vegetable ink. The kickstarter action continues until May 21, 2017 and has almost doubled the original funding target of 5,000 US dollars. The coloring book will be delivered to the first donors from the summer of 2017.

April 22, 2017

Say the truth: From now on in the ARD evening program

Say the truth: From now on in the ARD evening program

For a change, not knowledge, but knowledge of human nature is in demand in the new game show that will be always be seen from Friday, 21 April 2017 18:50 to ARD. The show will be followed by the well-known sports reporter Michael Antwerpes, who has also moderated the show since 2003 in the SWR.

It's all about this
For the maids driving in the ARD, the makers have changed some of the rules and procedures of the show. So there are from now on four instead of three chapters, there are only three candidates to the stage. They always claim to be special, to have a special ability or to have a special hobby. The prominent guessing team can ask questions to find out the swindlers and find out the right person. In turn four is then even reduced to two candidates.
But this does not make things simpler, because they are looking for an unleashing artist and a bag handkerchief - and this is not necessarily the case. Five prominent guesses are to come to the liars. Among them are Pierre M. Krause, Kim Fisher, Ursula Cantieni and Smudo as a permanent team, supplemented by a fifth celebrity every week. In the first shows are the actor Hannes Jaenicke, Tagesschausprecher Jan Hofer and cabaret artist Lisa Fitz. Of course, the audience can advise at home: do you have more detective insight than the celebrities?

Long tradition
The idea of ​​the show is already very old: in 1956 it ran for the first time as "Tell the Truth" on US television, three years later there was the first German version, which ran until 1971 with great success. From 1986 there was a new edition in Bavarian Radio, which ran until 1995. In 2003, the SWR then took up the idea and reissued it - this version runs until today and can now switch to the large ARD. Their advice team brings the show from the SWR, so the audience can expect experienced detectives.

Not for the first time
Quizshows from the third programs of the ARD on success to bring in the first, has with the ARD transmitter family already tradition. So also "asked - chased", meanwhile a quota hit on the eve of the ARD, was tested first at the NDR before it could first migrate. The presenter, who was originally from Great Britain, was also taken over by the presenter, and here, too, he was a sports expert: Alexander Bommes. The other shows on this radio station, "Who knows something," "Quizduell" and "Paarduel" started on the evening before, but have now also slipped with special editions into the Saturday evening. It remains to be seen which Showidee from the third programs it next in the ARD creates.

Colorful case cover for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus

Colorful case cover for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus

Langst it becomes serious, the sales start of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus is close to the door. Next week Friday, the 28th of April, it's finally time. Of course, the new smartphone is not to be hurt so pack it safely in a visually appealing case. Do not forget the screen protector! Here, even this time, Samsung offers its own screen protection film for both devices and even more. As with the predecessor models S7 and S7 Edge, the manufacturer is waiting with a whole armada of chic and functional sleeves. But not only Samsung itself has covers in the program, even with other manufacturers like Mumbie, Spigen or Caseology you will find. COMPUTER PICTURE drops the sleeves from cheap to expensive. There should be something suitable for every future Galaxy-S8 owner.

Samsung Galaxy S8 - galore
The covers for the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus shown in the picture gallery are just a fraction of what the wide world of envelopes has to offer. Online you will find a lot more. But watch out, sometimes there are also cases underneath that are spotbillig and do not fit properly. It can also happen that you wait for your ordered goods for weeks, because the case is delivered from China. So look carefully at the purchase on the Internet, from where the desired cover the journey to you.

Login at the PC: Schallkulisse is to replace the password

Login at the PC: Schallkulisse is to replace the password

The Swiss start-up Futurae introduces a procedure in which you can easily log on to online services with the sounds of your environment. Why? The background is that identity theft is a serious problem in our digital society. The passwords with which you identify with many online services are rarely certain. They can be steered firstly, as numerous data screw trains occupy , secondly, they would have to be so complex that one can only very difficult to memorize. For this reason, 2-factor authentication has existed for some time: For a bank transfer, for example, you receive a transaction number (TAN) via SMS on the mobile phone, which you then enter into the browser. This is safer, Because criminals usually do not reach your smartphone, but still uncomfortable wait for SMS, read on the mobile phone, enter. But hey, security costs comfort.

2-factor identification without user input
Futurae, founded by graduates from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, has been working on more comfortable procedures for a long time. The solution is Soundproof : The PC, which you are currently registering, takes up the ambient sounds (bird chirps, music, conversations) and calculates a checksum. On your mobile, Futura's app is the same. If the checksums match, the smartphone app allows the login on the PC. This would make soundproof a 2-factor identification without user input. The phone can even stay in the case of the bag, according to Futurae.

Security or privacy nightmare?
Of course, this raises questions: Is not that a bad danger to privacy when listening to the PC and smartphone? "No," says Claudio Marforio from Futurae, "we can not spy on the users." Because the recorded sounds do not leave the device, it only compares typical characteristics of the sounds. But could not an attacker run in the same room or run the same radiosender trick out? According to Futurae: If you log in for the first time in a new browser or on a new device, the app requires a manual confirmation.

Comfort and safety? Not yet!
Futurae has been researching soundproof for several years to make it really safe. The Swiss security researchers have already presented the procedure to a critical public even two years ago at the Usenix Security Symposium.Since then, the main focus has been on fine-tuning the process and financing Futurae. What is really new is how the Swiss are writing about the start-up capital and the first pilot projects. It takes a while, however, until you can easily identify yourself with Soundproof.

F8 2017: Facebook wants to read our thoughts

F8 2017: Facebook wants to read our thoughts

Es sounds like science fiction, but Facebook is actually working on a method of thought-reading: the world's largest online network would like to transform human thoughts directly into text. Need an example? At the in-house developer conference F8 in San José (18 and 19 April 2017), Facebook manager Regina Dugan gives the opportunity to send a text message to a friend without extracting the smartphone. At the moment, 100 words per minute are needed, which is realistic in just a few years, Dugan continued.

Thoughts read without implanted electrodes
In her speech, Dugan referred to recent studies at Stanford University. There, researchers succeeded in making a paralyzed woman write eight words per minute into the computer, thanks to electrodes in the brain, "as big as a bean" letter for letter. However, implants are not suitable for a massive use of the technology. Instead, one needs very sensitive sensors on the surface of the head, which monitor brain activity "one hundred thousand times per second to the millimeter". "Such technology does not exist today. We will have to invent them, "said Dugan. A team of 60 researchers is working on this vision at Facebook. In time, it would no longer be necessary to form words from individual letters in the head. A secondary effect is that people are then able, To express themselves in other languages ​​without having learned them. For example, the idea of ​​a cup could be translated directly into the corresponding foreign word in Spanish or Chinese.

Elon Musk is also researching the human brain
Not just Facebook is thinking about such a technology: tech billionaire Elon Musk is also probably researching in a new company how to connect the human brain directly with computers. The 45 year old is involved in the company Neuralink,which wants to develop corresponding electrodes according to the " Wall Street Journal " at the end of March.

F8 2017: Facebook relies on augmented reality
In addition to technologies for thought reading, Facebook wants to build a new developer forum around the so called extended reality ("Augmented Reality" or "AR"). Via the " Camera Effects Platform " one would like to integrate virtual objects into the real environment. The decisive device for this is the smartphone, with its camera and the screen, founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg on 18 April to the opening of the F8 conference. It is about games, but also about works of art that appear for viewers on a smartphone screen in the city, when they align their mobile phone camera to specific walls. Or messages that are only visible to certain people on the display. "We are starting today to build this new platform."

The competition also builds on AR
Facebook is not alone on his way. For example, Apple CEO Tim Cook repeatedly emphasized that the concept of extended reality is very promising. And the photo service Snapchat already experimented with virtual masks in photos which Facebook copied. Similarly, Microsoft has been working on AR devices such as the HoloLens and other manufacturers-produced glasses that combine virtual and extended reality. (With DPA material)

XXL Smartphone: The best Phablets from 5.5 inches

XXL Smartphone: The best Phablets from 5.5 inches

Es comes to the size nevertheless: Who uses his smartphone like a small, portable computer, needs a large display. Surfing, writing mail or playing a game makes a giant screen just more fun. COMPUTER BILD reveals the so-called Phablets (mixture of Ph one and T ablet ) in front. Are the giant smartphones too big for you? Then take a look at the most popular smartphones up to 4.7 inches.

Development to the grandeur
It all began at the end of 2011,when the iPhone 4S still had a 3.5 inch touch screen from today's point of view a mouse kitchen. At that time HTC titled its largest mobile phone so far as Sensation XL,so Extra Large.It had for then conditions "huge" 4.7-inch display.A few years later, smartphones with similar diagonals were called "Mini" ( Samsung Galaxy S5 mini : 4.5 inches) for a long time,but they still have the "Compact"(Sony Xperia Z5 Compact : 4.6 inch).Apple set new standards in 2014: already the smaller iPhone 6 came with 4.7 inches, the iPhone 6 Plus is with 5.5 inches a lupenreine Phablet. The size of the Apple smartphones has not changed in the iPhone 7 generation.For lovers of smaller devices, however, the company from Cupertino has published the iPhone SE.

Mobile phones from 5.5 inches are the trend
Meanwhile, all manufacturers have XXL smartphones on offer. Therefore it is worth taking a closer look: The best tested devices of the kind from 5.5 inches (13.97 centimeters) are in the overview. For each of the devices, the resolution ppi is to be read for pixel per inch. This number, regardless of the display size, indicates how close the pixels are to each other - the higher the ppi, the better. And what are the new top models from their predecessors? The Apple iPhone 7 Plus (5.5 inches) features an innovative dual camera on the back. In addition, it is waterproof just like the Samsung Galaxy S8+ (5.5 inch). Samsung's flagship is also inductively fast-charging. The Huawei Mate 9,5)

Large is not the same size
To the "ever-greater-madness", however, is another trend: manufacturers draw on the set screw "display size", but also equally at the display-to-case ratio. This year's high-end Phillips LG G6 (5.7 inches) and the Galaxy S8 (5.8 inch), which has thus been added to the Phablet category, come with large displays, but are smaller than many other devices with a similar display size. The consumer is pleased: Large screen and yet a handy format a good symbiosis of small display edges and compact device construction.

Price tips for XXL smartphones
Mobile phones with large displays do not have to be expensive. The Microsoft Lumia 950 XL with 5.7-inch display (for around 379 euros at Amazon) with good camera and Windows 10 operating system. Other price-cutters: The Honor 6X with 5.5 inches is available for about 239 euros (at Amazon). The battery life is particularly convincing here. The Elephone P9000 has a 5.5 inch display and is available for around 210 euros (at Amazon,all prices as of April 21, 2017): It is a China mobile phone with fingerprint sensor and a likewise strong battery.

Bluetooth speakers: test the best boxes

Bluetooth speakers: test the best boxes

Selbst the best smartphone is little if you want to listen to music on the go there must be a real box! Portable Bluetooth speakers with rechargeable batteries are excellent, but there are now in almost infinitely many variants and price classes. The music can be received without the need for a stripe: Bluetooth transmits songs up to a distance of about 10 meters. Built-in batteries or batteries provide the power and make the small box mobile. Which models sound really good, the test of COMPUTER BILD clarifies.

Rocks every party: Teufel Rockster XS
The Berlin-based producer Teufel has already proved with his disco on roles the Rockster that he knows how to sound a really fat party. The Rockster XS is a radically shrunk version with a similar character. It is designed for outdoor use equipped with a perennial rechargeable battery. Of course the sound can not be left on the road. In this discipline too, power dwarfs the competition: it sounds strong with rich, deep basses and lively, playful highs. An outdoor button is designed to provide more power outside. It affects the sound by amplifying the mids and taking back the basses.

Noble sound puck: Beoplay A1
With its format, the Beoplay A1 remembers the popular Ultimate Ears Roll.The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay A1 is a different way of design: Noble aluminum in a harmonious shape, the A1 is not suitable for outdoability. After all, a leather tracetrack makes the small, surprisingly weighty and therefore worthy appearing loudspeaker prima transportable. It sounds good: warm, balanced, voices discolor it minimally nasal.

Integrated Light Show: The JBL Pulse 2
Refreshingly different, JBLs Pulse 2 is at least visually appealing: it spreads a special ambience that can be adapted to your own preferences, especially in dark surroundings in the evenings on the couch with a cozy light mood. Thanks to its splash-proof housing and the powerful sound, the Pulse 2 is also suitable for use on the bathtub rim or on the terrace. In the field service, the loudspeaker has a very long battery life of 18 hours.

Made for outdoors: Ultimate Ears Wonderboom
With the Wonderboom, UE not only introduces a new format with the well-known and very high-quality case. The Wonderboom also sounds a better nuance than Roll 2 and Boom 2 despite a smaller volume - and above all in the more lively high-frequency range. Already a box provides for powerful mood, in concert, two Wonderboom make loud and powerful enough for extended beach fetish. And with over 18 hours also safe long enough. Good: The coupling with another Wonderboom box now finally works without the app by simultaneously pressing the button on the top.

For the big parties: Teufel Rockster
Not all tested Bluetooth speakers can simply be clamped under the arm and pull out with it: The huge Devil Rockster weighs 34 kilograms and is best to roll forward. Satte 118 decibels sound pressure spat out the monster box in the test lab. For comparison, a passenger aircraft reaches the human ear pain threshold by 130 decibels. At such a brutal volume level, the Rockster loosely loosens every party. Since anger is almost programmed with the police, Teufel provides the first 666 copies with a legal protection against retirement. In addition to the powerful bass, the sound block convinces above all with precise mids and highs, in the test there was the grade 2.21 (good). The catch: The loudspeaker costs almost 1,000 euros.

Can Amazon's echo compete?
Also Amazons loudspeaker Echo has already gone through the COMPUTERBILD-Testparcours. Why does it not appear in the test overview? Listening to music via Bluetooth is only one of the many echo functions, Amazon designed its tube as an all-rounder with language assistant and Smarthome connection. Things that flow into the test score, conventional Bluetooth boxes but can not a direct comparison would be unfair. Looking at only the sound of the echo, it is a bit mau: it is passable, but really rich sound from small housings? This can make other Bluetooth speakers better. At higher volumes the echo is increasingly tinny, sound details or deep basses are largely absent.

Also at home wireless: WLAN speakers
Apart from the monster Teufel Rockster, all the loudspeakers tested are perfect for on the go but at the expense of powerful bass or spatial sound. Who also in the domestic living room without cable messes want to get along, should reach the WLAN box. Models like the Teufel Raumfeld Stereo M are replacing the stereo system in a double pack. WLAN speakers play music from the home network and from the Internet, some thanks to Apple's standard AirPlay wireless from the iPhone or iPad. COMPUTER IMAGE has tested small and large WLAN boxes.

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