Portable Bluetooth Speakers

How The World Really Works

Embark on a Quest with How The World Really Works

Step into a world where the focus is keenly set on How The World Really Works. Within the confines of this article, a tapestry of references to How The World Really Works awaits your exploration. If your pursuit involves unraveling the depths of How The World Really Works, you've arrived at the perfect destination.

Our narrative unfolds with a wealth of insights surrounding How The World Really Works. This is not just a standard article; it's a curated journey into the facets and intricacies of How The World Really Works. Whether you're thirsting for comprehensive knowledge or just a glimpse into the universe of How The World Really Works, this promises to be an enriching experience.

The spotlight is firmly on How The World Really Works, and as you navigate through the text on these digital pages, you'll discover an extensive array of information centered around How The World Really Works. This is more than mere information; it's an invitation to immerse yourself in the enthralling world of How The World Really Works.

So, if you're eager to satisfy your curiosity about How The World Really Works, your journey commences here. Let's embark together on a captivating odyssey through the myriad dimensions of How The World Really Works.

Showing posts sorted by relevance for query How The World Really Works. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query How The World Really Works. Sort by date Show all posts

How The PC Industry Killed The Ultrabook


How the PC industry killed the ultrabook


How the PC industry killed the ultrabook

commentary Well, it was fun while it lasted.

The personal computer industry backed a promising candidate in the ultrabook concept, convincing even a skeptic like myself that a new class of superslim, superlight laptops was the key to exciting consumers. Ultrabooks were well on their way to becoming the PC form factor of the future.

And now, it's already over.

In record time -- something less than six months -- the ultrabook term has become so overused and amorphous that it's well on its way to being useless.

Liberal terminology
The first major examples of this new ultrabook rift are two laptops we recently reviewed. The HP Envy 14 Spectreand the Samsung Series 5 Ultra are both 14-inch laptops pitched as ultrabooks. The idea of bringing the ultrabook concept to larger laptops is a reasonable one -- the initial wave of ultrabooks were all 13-inch systems -- but they need to be nearly as thin and lightweight as the 13-inch models.

Instead, both the HP Spectre and Samsung Series 5 Ultra weigh a hair under 4 pounds, about a full pound more than a 13-inch MacBook Air. Both are also about one-tenth of an inch thicker. That may not sound like much, but when less than an inch is your baseline, it makes a noticeable difference in the feel of the laptop in your hand.

The biggest deviation from the ultrabook model to date is the 14-inch Samsung's use of a standard 500GB platter hard drive. The ultrabook platform is supposed to be built around faster, lighter solid-state drives (SSDs), and Samsung includes a tiny 16GB SSD as a secondary drive, which allows it to meet the letter, if not the spirit, of the ultrabook specifications. This system also includes an optical drive, which is another difference from previous ultrabooks.

It's relatively thin and light, but should it be an ultrabook? CNET

What you end up with, especially in the case of the Series 5 Ultra, is a perfectly fine midsize, mainstream laptop that can stand toe to toe with anything similar in the $850-$950 range. If we had seen it eight months or a year ago, our initial impression would be, "Wow, that's a pretty thin 14-inch laptop."

But today, there's absolutely nothing about it that says "ultrabook," which is bad news for this promising new category.

The origins of ultrabook
So, what is an ultrabook supposed to be, anyway?

Seeing the success of Apple's MacBook Air, Intel and PC manufacturers wanted to find a way to replicate it for Windows-based consumers in systems that could be sold at a reasonable price. The idea was pitched as an entirely new laptop category, although the name "Ultrabook" was a trademarked Intel marketing term, and the systems that were going to use it had to meet a series of Intel-set system requirements.

In fact, Intel even set aside $300 million to help PC makers develop these new systems, saying in August 2011 that it would "invest in companies building hardware and software technologies focused on enhancing how people interact with Ultrabooks such as through sensors and touch, achieving all-day usage through longer battery life, enabling innovative physical designs, and improved storage capacity."

The $799 Toshiba Z835. CNET

From that original big idea, and the subsequent challenge Intel presented to PC makers, came the first generation of laptops to use the ultrabook name. These systems, from companies such as Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba, and Asus, came off very well in our initial reviews and we were surprisingly impressed with the platform, especially as prices declined, offering buyers systems with 128GB SSD drives for as little as $799.

Ultrabooks 2012: From noteworthy to no big deal
But a few months ago, at CES 2012, I warned that the road ahead looked foggy, saying: "The ultrabook is in danger of being oversold by both Intel and industry watchers overeager to get behind the Next Big Thing."

And that seems to be exactly what is happening here. The ultrabook idea was a hit. It even seemed to have high name recognition with CNET readers, who would e-mail us with specific questions about which ultrabook they should buy. Now, everyone's rushing to join the bandwagon and the bigger 14- and even 15-inch ultrabooks hitting stores feel like they dilute the concept far too much.

For an example of this kind of branding done right, think back to the early days of wireless networks, when Intel's Centrino name meant that a laptop was able to connect to Wi-Fi and do most of the other networking things you needed it to, without you having to delve too deeply into the spec sheet.

In this case, instead of looking for an Intel ultrabook sticker on a laptop and knowing that it's going to be very thin, very light, rely on SSD storage, boot quickly, and run for a long time on a battery charge, now consumers will have to go back to checking the size and weight specs carefully.

How is that helpful for anybody?

Expect to see more laptops that look like this. CNET

The ultrabook is dead; long live the new laptop order
But the ultrabook, as originally presented, is still an idea whose time has come. Apple's MacBook Air proved that consumers could live without optical drives and large-capacity hard drives, and valued long battery life and portability over ports and connections (in that sense, systems such as the Dell Adamo were ahead of their time). Also, ultrabook branding is certainly not going away anytime soon, and we'll all see dozens of new ultrathin laptops both with the ultrabook label and without during the rest of 2012.

The real long-term victory is that the ultrabook is rewriting what it means to be a mainstream laptop. By this time next year, I find it hard to believe that any midprice, midsize laptop won't be well under 1 inch, and closer to 3 pounds than 4 or 5. Optical drives will continue to fade away, as will dedicated Ethernet jacks (although I'm still convinced you'll eventually need one in a pinch). If you're a PC maker and most of your future laptops aren't at least trending toward ultrabooks and the MacBook Air, you simply won't be in the game.

So, yeah: I'm no longer sure what "ultrabook" means anymore. But if most future laptops are going to be thinner, lighter, and faster -- whether or not they get an Intel-approved sticker -- maybe that's not such a bad thing.


Source

Tags:

Snap Opens Up Ways To Add AR Layers To The Real World


How to use snap layouts how to snap layout arguments how to put in a snap how to open snap without them knowing how do i use snap how do i get snap does snap score go up when you open a snap snap open api snap open banking
Snap Opens Up Ways to Add AR Layers to the Real World


Snap Opens Up Ways to Add AR Layers to the Real World

As VR and AR keep accelerating, companies making creative virtual world apps like Horizon Worlds and VRChat are finding a wild and sometimes hard-to-govern mix of user-made spaces that are sprouting up fast. In the world of AR, we might start seeing shared virtual experiences, too, overlaid with places in the physical world. Snap's AR Landmarkers, which can layer AR on top of real-world 3D-scanned places, are opening up for developers to start building on their own. Snap sees this AR layer as a key piece of its own road to AR glasses

Snap's already opened the Custom Landmarkers to early access for some developers, many of them building local culture or entertainment AR experiences. (Yu & Me Books in New York, a San Francisco historical AR experience in Union Square; a Charlie Parker jazz AR experience at a Kansas City statue; and a Paul Smith wall in LA is connected with an AR song performance by Megan Thee Stallion and Dua Lipa.)

The AR effects get created in Snap's own Lens Studio computer software, not on phone, and need lidar-equipped iPhones and iPads to 3D scan local landmarks, according to Snap's director of computer vision engineering, Qi Pan, who spoke to CNET. 

Snap's approach also shows the challenges ahead in handling issues of privacy and respectful use of physical spaces. The company's original use of AR landmarks triggered augmented virtual effects on 30 famous locations by holding up a phone camera using Snapchat. The same idea will apply here with these AR landmarks, but only after the experiences are approved through Snap's submission process. That curated path could help limit misuse and help ensure AR experiences are authorized for the spaces they're being activated for. The AR experiences get activated by either looking for the AR Lens effect on a creator's profile or by scanning a physical QR code at the place where the AR activation is connected.

Snap's location-based AR could be used across locations, setting up virtual art walks or theatrical experiences in a similar way to how Niantic's Lightship AR platform works. And the local AR effects look to be stepping-stones to how Snap's going to evolve its vision for wearable AR glasses, which currently exist in a developer-only prototype form.

"These use cases are probably interesting on mobile as well as glasses, and there will be a bunch of use cases which will only be interesting on glasses in the future," Pan said of Snap's future AR strategy. "But investing in these use cases on mobile that are also interesting on Spectacles in the future, we really learn: what the value is that people get out of it."


Source

3 Spotify Audio Settings That All 188 Million Subscribers Should Probably Change


How to change audio settings on spotify spotify max audio quality best spotify sound settings how to go to spotify settings spotify 3 spotify 2 spotify accounts spotify 3 month free trial
3 Spotify Audio Settings That All 188 Million Subscribers Should Probably Change


3 Spotify Audio Settings That All 188 Million Subscribers Should Probably Change

With over 188 million subscribers worldwide as of this month, Spotify is arguably one of the most popular music streaming platforms in the world. CNET also ranks Spotify as one of the best music streaming services on the market. 

CNET Tech Tips logo

Spotify lets you listen to music wherever you are, recommends new songs based on your activity and provides fun, personalized streaming data at the end of every year. Paid subscribers can also make and share playlists with friends on social media, or with the whole world through the app.

Read moreBest Soundbar Under $300

If you feel like something is missing from your listening experience though, Spotify lets you take control of various settings to make your music sound more superb. That way whether you're in a quiet library, your morning commute or pumping some iron in the gym, your music will always fit the mood. 

Here's how to crank your Spotify listening experience up to 11 no matter what the situation.

Adjust your base volume to match your environment

Volume is pretty easy to figure out, but did you know Spotify lets premium users adjust the base volume of the app depending on their environment? You can select either Quiet, Normal or Loud, and each has its own benefit.

Quiet will make songs a little quieter and sound cleaner, making it a good choice if you're relaxing at home. Normal makes songs play at a medium base volume, and the sound is less crisp than Quiet. This is a good choice for most people and situations. Loud is -- you guessed it -- louder, but you might lose some audio quality because of the loudness. This option is good if you're at the gym or other similarly noisy environments.

Here's how to adjust the base volume on your iPhone:

1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of your screen.
3. Tap the Playback option near the top of the menu.
4.
Beneath Volume level there are three options: Loud, Normal and Quiet

If you're using the Spotify app on a Mac, here's how to adjust the base volume:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Click the down arrow in the top-right corner.
3. Scroll down until you see Audio Quality.
4. Under Audio Quality, you should see Volume level
5. Click the drop-down bar to the right of Volume level.
6. From here, you see the same Loud, Normal and Quiet options. Pick whichever one works for you.

Here's how to adjust the base volume if you're using the Spotify app on an Android device:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Tap the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Scroll down to Playback and you should see Volume Level.
4. Next to Volume Level you should see the LoudNormal and Quiet options. Pick the one you want.

Finally, here's how to adjust the base volume in Spotify while on a Windows computer:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Click your account name in the top-right corner.
3. Click Settings.
4. Under Audio Quality, you should see Volume level. Click the drop-down bar to the right.
5. Select either LoudNormal or Quiet.

Spotify playlists on iPhone

Use the equalizer to customize your sound for your favorite genres.

Angela Lang/CNET

Use the Spotify Equalizer for more control 

If you prefer being more hands-on with how your bass and treble come across in each song, you can adjust the in-app equalizer. Adjusting your bass affects lower frequency sounds, making your music sound deeper with increased bass or flat with less bass. Treble affects the higher sound frequencies, making your music sound brighter and more crisp with increased treble or duller and kind of muddied with less treble. 

Here's how to access the equalizer on your iPhone:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Tap the gear in the top right corner to access Settings.
3. Tap the Playback option. 
4. Scroll down the menu and tap Equalizer.

Here's how to access the equalizer on your Android device:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Tap the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Under the Audio quality heading -- not under Data Saver -- tap Equalizer.

This opens the equalizer page on both systems. Here you can find the manual equalizer slider and a handful of premade genre-based equalizers. 

You should see the manual equalizer slider that looks like a line graph with six dots. When you first get to this page, the equalizer should be flat. 

Each dot on the graph can be adjusted for more or less sound. The far left bar represents your bass, the far right bar controls your treble and the middle bars control -- you guessed it -- your midrange. You can tweak the bars as you see fit.

There are also genre-based equalizers on this page. You can pick which genre you're listening to and the app automatically adjusts the sliders to optimize for that style of music. After picking one, you can further adjust the sliders for the perfect listening experience.

If you want to reset the equalizer, there's a genre-based equalizer called Flat. This will reset the equalizer to its default.

The Mac and Windows versions of Spotify don't have an in-application equalizer. But you can search for an equalizer application to help you in your journey to find the best sound.

Music on the Spotify app

Adjusting these settings can really make your music pop

James Martin/CNET

Adjust the quality of your music for a clearer sound 

You can also adjust the audio quality of your music. This is handy if you're using mobile data and don't want to bump up your phone bill. Reducing the audio quality will use less data. 

Here's how to change the audio quality on mobile and tablet:

1. Open the Spotify app.
2. Tap the gear icon to access Settings.
3. Scroll down until you see the heading Audio Quality -- not under Data Saver.
4. Under WiFi streaming and Cellular streaming, you can select Low, Normal, High or Automatic. The Automatic option adjusts the audio quality to whatever your signal strength is. There is also a fifth option for paid subscribers called Very high.

How to change the audio quality on your desktop:

1. Open Spotify.
2. Click the down arrow in the top-right corner.
3. Click Settings.
4. Scroll down to Audio Quality.
5. Beneath Audio Quality you should see Streaming quality. Click the drop-down menu to the right.
6. Choose between Low, Normal, High or Automatic options, and the Very high option for paid subscribers.

For more information on Spotify, see which Spotify plan is best for you and how Spotify stacks up against Apple Music.


Source

https://nichols.my.id/how-to-prepare-detox-water.html

.

'The Sandman' Hits Netflix Today: 9 TV Tips To Get The Best Watching Experience


The sandman his sea stories the sandman historia the sandman histoire the sandman his farm stories hit the sandman sandman songs 1960 hits sandman history the sandman netflix the sandman cast the sandman tv series the sandman imdb the sandman season 2 the sandman hotel the sandman netflix cast

'The Sandman' Hits Netflix Today: 9 TV Tips to Get the Best Watching Experience


'The Sandman' Hits Netflix Today: 9 TV Tips to Get the Best Watching Experience

What's happening

Picture settings on your new TV might not be ideal right out of the box.

Why it matters

Getting the best image possible out of your TV will make all your shows and movies pop.

What's next

We break down all the settings you'll need to adjust to get the best picture quality.

Netflix's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comes out today. But before you get too cozy on the couch watching the king of dreams, there are a few TV picture settings you'll want to change to get the best possible viewing experience. 

Believe it or not, your TV doesn't always come looking its best right out of the box. It may be surprising, but the default settings that your TV uses before you make any changes don't always deliver optimal performance. If you want the best out of your TV, especially as you prepare to watch this fantasy series based on the popular DC comic, you'll likely need to make a few adjustments to your picture settings. 

CNET Tech Tips logo

That's exactly what we do here at CNET as part of our TV review process. We immediately dig into the menus to adjust the picture settings to make sure the televisions we're testing have optimal picture quality. 

Fortunately, you don't have to be an expert to get your TV looking great. Every TV has numerous adjustment options, including different picture modes and controls for brightness, backlight, sharpness, smoothing and more, that you can change to improve the TV shows, movies and video games you watch every day.

We've broken down all the settings you might need to tweak to get the best picture out of your TV. Just keep in mind that picture setting names can vary from one manufacturer to another. A setting that one TV company calls "brightness," for example, could control something totally different on another television. We tackle a lot of the variations below, but we can't account for every TV maker, especially when it comes to older models.

Start with the right picture mode

Your TV's picture mode has the largest effect on overall picture quality. This one setting controls multiple other settings to change the overall "look" of your TV. If you've never changed this setting it's probably still the default mode, typically labeled Standard, Vivid, Dynamic, Bright or something similar. The TV is usually at its least accurate in this mode, with typically blown-out colors and image "enhancing" features that might catch the eye on a shelf in a store, but at home might make the TV look worse than it could. 

Picture Mode set to Movie on a TV screen

The easiest way to get accurate color? Put your TV in Movie or Cinema mode.

Sarah Tew/CNET

A place to start is switching to the mode called Cinema, Movie, Calibrated or Filmmaker. These will dial back some of the picture's more garish aspects. At first, the TV might even look soft or too warm ("reddish"). We'll discuss below why that is, but for now trust that you're actually seeing more fine detail, and the image is more lifelike. 

Read moreWhat's the Best Picture Mode?

Let's move on to some specific controls.

Backlight or OLED light

  • Controls the light intensity of the entire display
  • Too high and it can cause headaches or eye strain, waste energy and, in some cases, cause premature wear on the TV
  • Too low and the image is too dim and difficult to see

Nearly all TVs will have some control that adjusts the overall light output of the TV. It's usually labeled as the backlight control, or OLED light, or something similar. On newer Sony TVs this setting is labeled Brightness, and on Roku TVs there are five settings (Brightest to Darkest) in addition to a backlight control. Whatever the label, this setting is the actual brightness, which is generally separate from the control labeled "Brightness" (see below). 

You should adjust this setting based on room lighting and personal preference. Brighter rooms and daylight viewing will call for a higher setting, while home theater or nighttime viewing often looks better at a lower setting. On an LCD TV, a bright backlight can wash out the image somewhat and reduce contrast and pop, especially on models that lack full array local dimming

The brighter the TV is, the more energy it will consume, if you're concerned about how much electricity you use. Higher brightness also makes OLED TVs somewhat more susceptible to image retention and burn-in -- although that's unlikely with typical viewing habits, even at maximum brightness. 

Read more: OLED Screen Burn-In: What You Need to Know in 2022

Contrast

On the left, what the image of some friendly beachside 'roos should look like. On the right, when the contrast control is set too high. Notice the lack of detail in the sand and how the clouds are blown out.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
  • Controls the white or bright parts of an image
  • Too high will erase detail from clouds, snow and other bright objects
  • Too low will look dim and flat

The contrast control adjusts how bright the bright parts of the image are. There is an upper limit, however. If you set the control too high, it "clips" the whites, making near-white details totally white. This effectively erases any detail in bright objects like clouds without making the image actually brighter.

To set contrast by eye, you'll need something with a lot of bright areas of the image. Baseball works pretty well for this -- a fly ball, pop fly, home runs, something with shots of the sky -- or skiing (depending on season, clearly) or something with clouds. What you're looking for is a bright image, but still with highlight detail. In other words, the bright areas of the image still have detail, and aren't just awash in white. 

Once you've found something you think will work, turn the contrast control up until you start losing detail. Clouds will cease being clouds, snow will just be glare. Now turn the control back down till you see detail again. Somewhere in this range will be ideal. Since all content is a little different you might need to tweak it a bit as you watch other shows/movies.

Don't want to mess with all that? Just leave it at the default for the Movie or Cinema setting.

Brightness or black level

On the left, what the teahouse should look like. On the right, when the brightness control is set too low. Notice how the shadows disappear completely.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
  • Controls the black or dark parts of an image
  • Too high will look flat and washed out
  • Too low will erase detail in shadows and dark areas of the image

On most TVs, the brightness control doesn't actually control the TV's "brightness." Instead, it adjusts how dark the darkest parts of the image are. Like with contrast, there's a fine line between too high and too low. In this case, too high and the image will appear washed out. Too low and all shadows will disappear into black. (On newer Sony TVs, this control is labeled Black Level.)

Comparison of brightness levels

A closeup from the image above. Notice how you can't see anything in the shadows in the image on the right.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

To set brightness, you're looking for the opposite type of content from contrast. Dark movies, like Aliens or The Dark Knight, are perfect for this. Some famously dark TV episodes might be too dark to use for this. 

Turn the Brightness control down until everything disappears into blackness (or something close). From there, turn it back up so you can see detail in everything, but the image doesn't look washed out. Another test for this is a darker scene with someone with long hair. The underside of their hair (I don't know what people with hair call it) away from the light can be a good place to spot shadow detail -- also dark coats at night. Again, you might need to try a few different shows or movies to get it right.

Sharpness

On the left, the original image of the walls of Tallinn. On the right, what it could look like if you set the sharpness control too high.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
  • Controls artificial edge enhancement, not image sharpness
  • Too high erases image detail, adds a halo to fine lines
  • Depending on the TV, set to 0 there's no effect, or a slight softening

Believe it or not, the sharpness control doesn't really improve sharpness. In a way it improves apparent sharpness, but at the expense of actual fine detail and usually with additional noise. On nearly all TVs the sharpness control adds "edge enhancement," artificially accentuating any edges the TV finds in the image. The problem is, doing this hides the actual detail in the image, so the result looks more artificial with less actual detail.

A close-up of the previous comparison

A close-up of the example above. Note the extra noise and artificial "halo" around the spires on the right.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

So it may seem counterintuitive, but you should turn the sharpness control down, way down. Some TVs look best with the control at 0. Others look best within the first 10% or so of this control's range. If you're used to how your TV looks with the sharpness control way up, as it typically is in the Dynamic or Vivid modes, it might appear soft at first when you turn it down. Find some high-quality 4K content and you might be surprised how detailed it now looks. You should be able to find the sweet spot on your TV looking closely for textures in clothing, wrinkles in faces, hair and beards, that kind of thing.

Read moreWhy You Need to Turn Down Your TV's Sharpness Control

Color and tint

  • Controls color saturation and red-green shift
  • A holdover from the analog TV days
  • Generally will be correct, or close enough, out of the box

Generally, the color and tint controls will be reasonably close to correct out of the box, especially in Cinema or Movie mode. You can experiment with their effects, but it's rare they're off by more than one or two steps in either direction.

Comparison of different color temperatures

At the top, the color temperature is set too low, or warm. At the bottom, it's set too high, or cool.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

Color temperature or white balance

  • Controls how warm or cool the image looks
  • Too high and the image will be too blue
  • Too low and the image will be too red

Color temperature is a difficult one. Your brain gets used to the color temp of your TV, so if you change it, it's going to seem "wrong." In fact, this is probably the first thing you'll notice if you switch to the Cinema or Movie mode. It's going to look too warm or "reddish." On most TVs, this is actually the most accurate and lifelike. Your TV has been lying to you for years! 

Switch to your TV's warm color temperature mode and watch it for a few days. If it still seems off to you, try the standard mode. I promise the cool mode will look far too blue once you get used to warm.

Check out my article on color temp and why it matters for more info.

Motion interpolation or smoothing (the soap opera effect)

The Reduce Motion Blur option highlighted in the Motion Control options
David Katzmaier/CNET
  • Controls how "smooth" motion is by artificially creating new frames of video
  • Too high, or even enabled at all, it can be annoying to some
  • Too low and the TV might appear soft with motion, such as sports

As TV settings go, motion interpolation is a rather controversial topic. Many people, including film purists and pretty much everyone who works in Hollywood, hate it. It makes movies look like a cheap soap opera or a video you'd shoot on your phone. If you've ever looked at a new TV and just felt something was off, or the image just didn't look real, it's probably this. Some people like it, but a lot of people don't. Your new TV almost certainly has this feature turned on in non-Cinema or Movie modes. Turning it off might change how you feel about your purchase.

Read more: Tom Cruise Wants You to Turn Off Soap Opera Effect. Here's How

Game mode

  • Reduces input lag, or how long it takes for your input to register onscreen
  • Usually disables features that might make the image better
  • Useful for any game that requires timing or aiming, especially online multiplayer

Input lag is how long it takes for you to press a button on a game controller and then to have an onscreen effect in the game. For many people this delay, measured in milliseconds, isn't noticeable. For others, especially with certain types of games, it can make a massive difference. From jumping puzzles to pixel-perfect aim in a first-person shooter, getting the timing right in many games is crucial. 

Minimizing input lag, usually via a feature called game mode, can make a significant difference. If you've bought a new TV and suddenly your scores and rankings have dropped, this might be why. It's not something you want to leave enabled all the time, since it usually disables processing features that can improve the TV's picture quality.

Some TVs and consoles now support switching to this mode automatically.

Further steps

As mentioned above, the next step to fine-tuning your TV to perfection is getting a setup disc. The Spears & Munsil disc is a great option because it gets you right to the patterns without any extraneous fluff. If you just want someone else to do it, ideally with specialized test equipment, see if there are any TV calibrators in your area.

Lastly, make sure any sources you have, like a streaming stick or a cable or satellite box, are set to your TV's resolution (4K for 4K TVs, etc). Generally speaking they should do this automatically, but it's worth digging into the settings to be sure. Your 4K TV won't look its best without 4K content. You might need to pay for a higher tier to get that, depending on the service. 

Lastly, HDMI. Chances are whatever HDMI cables you have are fine. If you try to send 4K from a media streamer and it doesn't work, it's possible your HDMI cables can't handle the additional resolution. But new HDMI cables are cheap. If your TV is getting the resolution you want from your sources, new HDMI cables won't make the image look or sound better, so you can save your money. 

For more, check out CNET's lists of the best 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch TVs you can buy. You can also take a look at the best 4K TVs available


As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarinesmassive aircraft carriersmedieval castlesairplane graveyards and more. 

You can follow his exploits on Instagram and YouTube, and on his travel blog, BaldNomad. He also wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines, along with a sequel. 


Source

'The Sandman' Hits Netflix Today: 9 TV Tips To Get The Best Watching Experience


The sandman netflix show the sandman netflix release the sandman movie netflix the sandman his sea stories hit the sandman sandman history is the sandman a hit the sandman imdb the sandman season 2
'The Sandman' Hits Netflix Today: 9 TV Tips to Get the Best Watching Experience


'The Sandman' Hits Netflix Today: 9 TV Tips to Get the Best Watching Experience

What's happening

Picture settings on your new TV might not be ideal right out of the box.

Why it matters

Getting the best image possible out of your TV will make all your shows and movies pop.

What's next

We break down all the settings you'll need to adjust to get the best picture quality.

Netflix's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comes out today. But before you get too cozy on the couch watching the king of dreams, there are a few TV picture settings you'll want to change to get the best possible viewing experience. 

Believe it or not, your TV doesn't always come looking its best right out of the box. It may be surprising, but the default settings that your TV uses before you make any changes don't always deliver optimal performance. If you want the best out of your TV, especially as you prepare to watch this fantasy series based on the popular DC comic, you'll likely need to make a few adjustments to your picture settings. 

CNET Tech Tips logo

That's exactly what we do here at CNET as part of our TV review process. We immediately dig into the menus to adjust the picture settings to make sure the televisions we're testing have optimal picture quality. 

Fortunately, you don't have to be an expert to get your TV looking great. Every TV has numerous adjustment options, including different picture modes and controls for brightness, backlight, sharpness, smoothing and more, that you can change to improve the TV shows, movies and video games you watch every day.

We've broken down all the settings you might need to tweak to get the best picture out of your TV. Just keep in mind that picture setting names can vary from one manufacturer to another. A setting that one TV company calls "brightness," for example, could control something totally different on another television. We tackle a lot of the variations below, but we can't account for every TV maker, especially when it comes to older models.

Start with the right picture mode

Your TV's picture mode has the largest effect on overall picture quality. This one setting controls multiple other settings to change the overall "look" of your TV. If you've never changed this setting it's probably still the default mode, typically labeled Standard, Vivid, Dynamic, Bright or something similar. The TV is usually at its least accurate in this mode, with typically blown-out colors and image "enhancing" features that might catch the eye on a shelf in a store, but at home might make the TV look worse than it could. 

Picture Mode set to Movie on a TV screen

The easiest way to get accurate color? Put your TV in Movie or Cinema mode.

Sarah Tew/CNET

A place to start is switching to the mode called Cinema, Movie, Calibrated or Filmmaker. These will dial back some of the picture's more garish aspects. At first, the TV might even look soft or too warm ("reddish"). We'll discuss below why that is, but for now trust that you're actually seeing more fine detail, and the image is more lifelike. 

Read moreWhat's the Best Picture Mode?

Let's move on to some specific controls.

Backlight or OLED light

  • Controls the light intensity of the entire display
  • Too high and it can cause headaches or eye strain, waste energy and, in some cases, cause premature wear on the TV
  • Too low and the image is too dim and difficult to see

Nearly all TVs will have some control that adjusts the overall light output of the TV. It's usually labeled as the backlight control, or OLED light, or something similar. On newer Sony TVs this setting is labeled Brightness, and on Roku TVs there are five settings (Brightest to Darkest) in addition to a backlight control. Whatever the label, this setting is the actual brightness, which is generally separate from the control labeled "Brightness" (see below). 

You should adjust this setting based on room lighting and personal preference. Brighter rooms and daylight viewing will call for a higher setting, while home theater or nighttime viewing often looks better at a lower setting. On an LCD TV, a bright backlight can wash out the image somewhat and reduce contrast and pop, especially on models that lack full array local dimming

The brighter the TV is, the more energy it will consume, if you're concerned about how much electricity you use. Higher brightness also makes OLED TVs somewhat more susceptible to image retention and burn-in -- although that's unlikely with typical viewing habits, even at maximum brightness. 

Read more: OLED Screen Burn-In: What You Need to Know in 2022

Contrast

On the left, what the image of some friendly beachside 'roos should look like. On the right, when the contrast control is set too high. Notice the lack of detail in the sand and how the clouds are blown out.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
  • Controls the white or bright parts of an image
  • Too high will erase detail from clouds, snow and other bright objects
  • Too low will look dim and flat

The contrast control adjusts how bright the bright parts of the image are. There is an upper limit, however. If you set the control too high, it "clips" the whites, making near-white details totally white. This effectively erases any detail in bright objects like clouds without making the image actually brighter.

To set contrast by eye, you'll need something with a lot of bright areas of the image. Baseball works pretty well for this -- a fly ball, pop fly, home runs, something with shots of the sky -- or skiing (depending on season, clearly) or something with clouds. What you're looking for is a bright image, but still with highlight detail. In other words, the bright areas of the image still have detail, and aren't just awash in white. 

Once you've found something you think will work, turn the contrast control up until you start losing detail. Clouds will cease being clouds, snow will just be glare. Now turn the control back down till you see detail again. Somewhere in this range will be ideal. Since all content is a little different you might need to tweak it a bit as you watch other shows/movies.

Don't want to mess with all that? Just leave it at the default for the Movie or Cinema setting.

Brightness or black level

On the left, what the teahouse should look like. On the right, when the brightness control is set too low. Notice how the shadows disappear completely.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
  • Controls the black or dark parts of an image
  • Too high will look flat and washed out
  • Too low will erase detail in shadows and dark areas of the image

On most TVs, the brightness control doesn't actually control the TV's "brightness." Instead, it adjusts how dark the darkest parts of the image are. Like with contrast, there's a fine line between too high and too low. In this case, too high and the image will appear washed out. Too low and all shadows will disappear into black. (On newer Sony TVs, this control is labeled Black Level.)

Comparison of brightness levels

A closeup from the image above. Notice how you can't see anything in the shadows in the image on the right.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

To set brightness, you're looking for the opposite type of content from contrast. Dark movies, like Aliens or The Dark Knight, are perfect for this. Some famously dark TV episodes might be too dark to use for this. 

Turn the Brightness control down until everything disappears into blackness (or something close). From there, turn it back up so you can see detail in everything, but the image doesn't look washed out. Another test for this is a darker scene with someone with long hair. The underside of their hair (I don't know what people with hair call it) away from the light can be a good place to spot shadow detail -- also dark coats at night. Again, you might need to try a few different shows or movies to get it right.

Sharpness

On the left, the original image of the walls of Tallinn. On the right, what it could look like if you set the sharpness control too high.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET
  • Controls artificial edge enhancement, not image sharpness
  • Too high erases image detail, adds a halo to fine lines
  • Depending on the TV, set to 0 there's no effect, or a slight softening

Believe it or not, the sharpness control doesn't really improve sharpness. In a way it improves apparent sharpness, but at the expense of actual fine detail and usually with additional noise. On nearly all TVs the sharpness control adds "edge enhancement," artificially accentuating any edges the TV finds in the image. The problem is, doing this hides the actual detail in the image, so the result looks more artificial with less actual detail.

A close-up of the previous comparison

A close-up of the example above. Note the extra noise and artificial "halo" around the spires on the right.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

So it may seem counterintuitive, but you should turn the sharpness control down, way down. Some TVs look best with the control at 0. Others look best within the first 10% or so of this control's range. If you're used to how your TV looks with the sharpness control way up, as it typically is in the Dynamic or Vivid modes, it might appear soft at first when you turn it down. Find some high-quality 4K content and you might be surprised how detailed it now looks. You should be able to find the sweet spot on your TV looking closely for textures in clothing, wrinkles in faces, hair and beards, that kind of thing.

Read moreWhy You Need to Turn Down Your TV's Sharpness Control

Color and tint

  • Controls color saturation and red-green shift
  • A holdover from the analog TV days
  • Generally will be correct, or close enough, out of the box

Generally, the color and tint controls will be reasonably close to correct out of the box, especially in Cinema or Movie mode. You can experiment with their effects, but it's rare they're off by more than one or two steps in either direction.

Comparison of different color temperatures

At the top, the color temperature is set too low, or warm. At the bottom, it's set too high, or cool.

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

Color temperature or white balance

  • Controls how warm or cool the image looks
  • Too high and the image will be too blue
  • Too low and the image will be too red

Color temperature is a difficult one. Your brain gets used to the color temp of your TV, so if you change it, it's going to seem "wrong." In fact, this is probably the first thing you'll notice if you switch to the Cinema or Movie mode. It's going to look too warm or "reddish." On most TVs, this is actually the most accurate and lifelike. Your TV has been lying to you for years! 

Switch to your TV's warm color temperature mode and watch it for a few days. If it still seems off to you, try the standard mode. I promise the cool mode will look far too blue once you get used to warm.

Check out my article on color temp and why it matters for more info.

Motion interpolation or smoothing (the soap opera effect)

The Reduce Motion Blur option highlighted in the Motion Control options
David Katzmaier/CNET
  • Controls how "smooth" motion is by artificially creating new frames of video
  • Too high, or even enabled at all, it can be annoying to some
  • Too low and the TV might appear soft with motion, such as sports

As TV settings go, motion interpolation is a rather controversial topic. Many people, including film purists and pretty much everyone who works in Hollywood, hate it. It makes movies look like a cheap soap opera or a video you'd shoot on your phone. If you've ever looked at a new TV and just felt something was off, or the image just didn't look real, it's probably this. Some people like it, but a lot of people don't. Your new TV almost certainly has this feature turned on in non-Cinema or Movie modes. Turning it off might change how you feel about your purchase.

Read more: Tom Cruise Wants You to Turn Off Soap Opera Effect. Here's How

Game mode

  • Reduces input lag, or how long it takes for your input to register onscreen
  • Usually disables features that might make the image better
  • Useful for any game that requires timing or aiming, especially online multiplayer

Input lag is how long it takes for you to press a button on a game controller and then to have an onscreen effect in the game. For many people this delay, measured in milliseconds, isn't noticeable. For others, especially with certain types of games, it can make a massive difference. From jumping puzzles to pixel-perfect aim in a first-person shooter, getting the timing right in many games is crucial. 

Minimizing input lag, usually via a feature called game mode, can make a significant difference. If you've bought a new TV and suddenly your scores and rankings have dropped, this might be why. It's not something you want to leave enabled all the time, since it usually disables processing features that can improve the TV's picture quality.

Some TVs and consoles now support switching to this mode automatically.

Further steps

As mentioned above, the next step to fine-tuning your TV to perfection is getting a setup disc. The Spears & Munsil disc is a great option because it gets you right to the patterns without any extraneous fluff. If you just want someone else to do it, ideally with specialized test equipment, see if there are any TV calibrators in your area.

Lastly, make sure any sources you have, like a streaming stick or a cable or satellite box, are set to your TV's resolution (4K for 4K TVs, etc). Generally speaking they should do this automatically, but it's worth digging into the settings to be sure. Your 4K TV won't look its best without 4K content. You might need to pay for a higher tier to get that, depending on the service. 

Lastly, HDMI. Chances are whatever HDMI cables you have are fine. If you try to send 4K from a media streamer and it doesn't work, it's possible your HDMI cables can't handle the additional resolution. But new HDMI cables are cheap. If your TV is getting the resolution you want from your sources, new HDMI cables won't make the image look or sound better, so you can save your money. 

For more, check out CNET's lists of the best 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch TVs you can buy. You can also take a look at the best 4K TVs available


As well as covering TV and other display tech, Geoff does photo tours of cool museums and locations around the world, including nuclear submarinesmassive aircraft carriersmedieval castlesairplane graveyards and more. 

You can follow his exploits on Instagram and YouTube, and on his travel blog, BaldNomad. He also wrote a bestselling sci-fi novel about city-size submarines, along with a sequel. 


Source

The IPhone At 15: How Apple's Phone Became The Center Of Your Life


How old is an iphone s how old is the iphone s apple iphone ios 15 iphone 11 apple store iphone stuck on apple logo ios 15 iphone 12 apple iphone 15 pro the iphone ten the iphone guy
The iPhone at 15: How Apple's Phone Became the Center of Your Life


The iPhone at 15: How Apple's Phone Became the Center of Your Life

This story is part of Focal Point iPhone 2022, CNET's collection of news, tips and advice around Apple's most popular product.

What's happening

On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone went on sale. A decade and a half later what defines the iPhone has shifted away from just design and hardware specs to dozens of Apple-centric features and services.

Why it matters

For better or worse, the iPhone has become home to our photos, music, conversations, ideas, games, identity, work, social media, shopping, keys and money. It will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Today marks 15 years since the first iPhone went on sale. When Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone he wryly hyped it as three revolutionary products: an iPod, a phone and an internet communicator. The first iPhone only came in one size and the only decision you had was whether to get 4GB of storage or 8GB. As far as carriers, only AT&T supported Apple's first phone in the US.

At the time, the idea of carrying an iPhone instead of a flip phone and an iPod was enough to convince some people to buy one. For others like me, the iPhone's main appeal was the touchscreen, which seemed unreal and futuristic. 

"From the very beginning, one of the unique things about [the] iPhone was that we wanted to fuse together software, services and hardware to create a simple, powerful kind of magical experience," said Bob Borchers, Apple's vice president for product marketing. "And with the original iPhone, it was that interaction of multitouch and pinch to zoom, where you started to see that come together."

Fifteen years later, Apple sells eight different models of iPhone, five of which have launched in the past 10 months. There is at least one version that works with pretty much every major phone carrier in the world. The iPhone is available in an array of colors, finishes, sizes and storage options that now top out at 1TB. And while the screen is where most of the magic happens, it's no longer the main appeal of the iPhone.

Over the past decade and a half, what defines the iPhone has shifted away from just design and hardware specs. Instead, the iPhone and iOS have become a gateway into Apple services and features like iMessage, FaceTime, Siri, Apple Music, Apple Pay, top-of-the-line cameras and apps like Uber, TikTok, Twitter and WhatsApp. For better or worse, the iPhone has become home to our photos, music, conversations, ideas, games, identity, work, social media, shopping, keys and money.

In 2022, the iPhone continues to extend beyond its svelte metal-and-glass chassis into the world around us. It's the backbone for products like the Apple Watch and AirPods, and will likely play a role in future Apple products like rumored AR glasses.

It also serves as the foundation for Apple's digital services, which have become an increasingly important factor to differentiate the iPhone from competing mobile devices. These services have evolved rapidly in recent years along with the iPhone.

Find My, which started as a tool in 2010 for locating a lost iPhone, has grown into a network for finding Apple devices and pretty much anything you can attach one of Apple's tiny AirTag trackers to. Some products, like VanMoof's S3 bike, even have built-in Find My support, eliminating the need to add an AirTag entirely. As of 2021, Apple's Find My network had hundreds of millions of devices, most of which were iPhones.

Just weeks ago at WWDC, Apple's annual software developers conference, the company announced iOS 16 with expansions to its nearly decade-old Wallet app and Apple Pay service. Essentially, Apple wants to make your physical wallet obsolete. There's also a new feature called Apple Pay Later that lets you split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments spread over six weeks, with zero interest and no fees. It's done entirely through your iPhone.

an iPhone SE

The 2022 iPhone SE is nearly identical to the 2020 version but gets more durable glass, 5G and the A15 Bionic chip that debuted in the iPhone 13.

Kevin Heinz/CNET

In fact, you need an iPhone to access or use most of these services. Keep in mind that, for years, the iPhone's premium price made it inaccessible to many, and that's still true of Apple's top-of-the-line iPhone Pro models. The recently upgraded iPhone SE gives Apple the opportunity to expand the iPhone's reach even further. It's the purest example of what defines an iPhone in 2022. The SE blends the body of an iPhone 8 with the glass and processor from the iPhone 13. At $429, it's currently the most affordable way to get people into Apple experiences.

I spoke with Borchers ahead of the iPhone SE launch in March about the phone and why Apple added an A15 Bionic chip to it.

"It's actually a really easy decision to put as much capability as we can in today, in order to invest in and create opportunities for those future experiences. It's something that distinguishes us from others," said Borchers.

No other phone maker takes this approach. It would be like Samsung using the body of its Galaxy S8 and putting the Galaxy S22's processing power inside. The upcoming Pixel 6A will be the first budget Android phone that uses the same processor, Google's Tensor chip, as the flagship Pixel 6 and 6 Pro. Of course, Google isn't putting it into the body of Pixel 2 and instead is introducing a new design.

It makes sense that Apple's cheapest phone has the same processor as its most expensive: It's all about giving people access to Apple experiences. For example, if you buy an iPhone SE, you can use the Live Text feature in iOS 15 to grab text with your camera or copy it from a photo. And while the 2016 and 2020 versions of the iPhone SE sold well, it seems the 2022 version isn't breaking any sales records yet. Apple doesn't disclose a specific model breakdown of how many iPhones it sells, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo lowered his shipping estimates for the iPhone SE (2022) by 10 million. The lower demand could be an effect of rising inflation and the fact that the 2022 and 2020 versions of the iPhone SE look identical.

The SE showcases how iOS and Apple Silicon become the bedrock for everything you do on your iPhone. Obviously, not every model in Apple's iPhone lineup is equal. More expensive phones like the iPhone 13 Pro come with a contemporary design, high refresh-rate screens, larger camera sensors and tools like the U1 ultrawideband chip and lidar.

These extra perks mean you can use your iPhone in more ways. For example, if you've got the right car, you can unlock it and start it with your iPhone. Borscher describes moments like these as "automagic," meaning it just works. The same way a pair of AirPods can switch from your iPhone to your Mac for watching a video, or the way you can unlock your Mac using your Apple Watch.

Apple Airpods next to an iPhone

Apple first introduced AirPods in 2017 with the release of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, which lacked a physical headphone jack. 

Sarah Tew/CNET

Such growth has consequences. Antitrust concerns over the app store and mobile payments, debates about screen time, Apple's contentious dealings with the FBI, criticism that all these services are part of a strategy to lock people into Apple's ecosystem and, more recently, privacy questions over AirTags are just some of the concerns that have grown alongside the iPhone's meteoric success. There are even questions as to whether Apple can launch another product line that is even half as successful as the iPhone. My CNET colleague and Apple reporter Ian Sherr points out that products like the Apple Watch and AirPods are lucrative lar gely because of their connection to the iPhone.

Over 15 years, the iPhone has become ubiquitous and helped Apple become a nearly $3 trillion company. The next iteration of the phone, likely called the iPhone 14, is expected to launch this September. It will no doubt run on iOS 16 and have the newest version of Apple's A-series processor and will continue to support the Apple experience. As for the long-term, my colleague Lisa Eadicicco thinks the most important part of future iPhones will be how it works with everything around it.


Source

Search This Blog

Menu Halaman Statis

close