Gigarefurb Refurbished Laptops News

Smart lighting specialist, Sengled, has added a wireless IP camera to its energy efficient lamp to create a staggeringly simple security system (priced at £180 – around $220, AU$290). In fact, the combination seems so logical, we’re surprised there aren’t more such products in this category. Anyone looking for a security light will surely be happy to find they can also see and record the people approaching their property. 

There is, however, one catch that should be pointed out before we go any further. The light does not come on when you approach, as the motion sensors only trigger the camera. More on this later.

What this product will do, with the assistance of its companion app, is film your whole room through its wide-angle lens in Full HD quality, and stream the 1080p video to your phone free of charge, or store it in the cloud for a monthly fee.

You can choose to receive alerts when motion is detected, communicate through the device’s two-way speakers, and dim the LED light on a sliding scale. 

You can even make your camera public and share your feed with strangers, so obviously, you’ll want to make very sure this feature is permanently disabled from the off.

Design and installation

Really, this security camera couldn’t be easier to install. Simply screw it in place of your existing E27-type bulb. Okay, so in the UK, that might mean buying an adapter for your bayonet fitting (like we did), but it’s by far the simplest security solution out there. We found that a pendant light in our front reception room got a good all-around view of the hallway and any new faces that entered the building. 

The lamp is surprisingly large and heavy in real life, weighing 604g, so it’s unlikely to fit inside your existing outdoor light fittings, and although it is splash resistant to some extent (IP53-rated) it is by no means rainproof.

Dangling pendant fittings will be the most likely candidates for hosting the Snap bulb and because of its very wide-angle lens, the camera will still manage to pick up the faces of the people moving below. 

With the lamp screwed into its fitting, you can then rotate the camera to get the correct orientation.

Features

From the box and with no subscription, Snap can send a live video feed in 720p or 1080p quality to your smart device. It also acts as a dimmable smart light that can be set on a schedule and controlled remotely.

It’s only when you take out a subscription that the motion-activated video clips are recorded automatically and alerts can be sent to your phone. A one-day subscription costs €3.50 (around £3, $3.50), and allows for your video to be stored on Sengled’s servers for one day – and motion detection is unlocked. A 30-day sub costs €18.50 per month (around £16, $20), which works out slightly more expensive than rivals such as Nest.

A speaker and mic is built-in, so you can potentially communicate, in somewhat clipped tones, to visitors, or use the Snap as a baby monitor.

Performance

Installing Snap might be very easy, but the companion app does leave room for improvement. There’s not much to it, but the software still manages to frustrate with its unintuitive menu.

Picture quality is up to scratch in 1080p mode, and the wide view manages to capture the whole room, or a large outdoor area. Picture quality drops dramatically in low light, but then picks up when the IR kicks in at night. Zooming from 2x to 4x also seriously degrades the image.

There is some delay with the motion detection, so a fast moving burglar could dash through the hallway without appearing in the recorded clip at all, but it’s on par with most IP cameras.

As a smart light, the Snap is useful and flexible, with the ability to set up a schedule and a preferred brightness via the Snap app. The only frustrating element is the way it won’t illuminate when you walk beneath it. 

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The Neewer TT560 flash is compatible with Canon Digital EOS, Nikon DSLR and most cameras with a hot shoe. It also works with Sony cameras using an adapter. The flash unit has 8 steps of power output control which are indicated by 8 LED lights. Save 35% with this lightning deal and get it for just £19.54. This offer ends in 3 hours.

You may also be interested in the following offers

£62.88 for the 240GB Goldendisk SDD
Revive any computer with this SSD by Goldendisk. With 240GB of storage space, it’s 10 times faster than a standard 7200RPM hard drive. It’s also totally silent and more reliable as the SSD has no moving components. Get the 240GB Goldendisk SSD for just £62.88.

Get the EFOSHM Fitness Bracelet for £29.99
The EFOSHM Fitness Bracelet can track your daily activities and monitor the quality of your sleep. It counts steps, calories burned as well as distances. The built-in screen displays time and alerts, and vibrations let you know when it’s time so get out your sit. The tracker is compatible with Andoid and iOS smartphones. Get it today for just £29.99 with free delivery in the UK.

45% off the the Mpow Universal Bike Mount Holder.

This smartphone holder can be fitted on any bike, motorcycle or scooter with a handlebar of 1.1″. No tools are required with just a screw on the flipper and it’s designed with a one-button released function. It’s suitable for any smartphone of up to 5.7″. For extra security the clamp automatically adjusts to grip the device that holds in place firmly thanks to a strong adjustable non-slip clamp with silicone band straps. Get the Mpow Universal Bike Mount Holder for just £8.29.

Save 71% and get the Rampow MFI Lightning Cable for £6.29.

Charge and sync your Apple devices with this Rampow MFI (Made For iPhone) Lightning Cable. It’s compatible with all 8 Pin Apple devices including the iPhone 5, 5C, 6, and later, but also iPod Nano 7, iPad mini 2, mini 3, mini 4, iPad Air, iPad Pro and later. The nylon cable provides additional protection against bent damage and the USB and Lightning casings are protected by an aluminium shell.

46% off the Mpow Smart Fitness tracker

The Mpow Smart Fitness tracker can track your daily activities and monitor the quality of your sleep. It counts steps, calories burned as well as distances. It has a built-in screen and connects to the smartphone via Bluetooth to display caller ID and messages. It can also display messages from Facebook, Titter, Whatsapp, and more. The Mpow Smart Fitness Bracelet can also track sleep and wake you up with silent alarms. Get it today for just £21.69 with free delivery in the UK.

Get the Veho M7 Bluetooth speaker for £69.99

With its retro design, the Veho M7 is a Bluetooth speaker to stream music from your smartphone or your computer. The dual acoustic drivers are coupled with two 10W speakers and the rechargeable battery delivers 10 hours of music. The Veho M7 is IPX4 rated meaning that it’s protected against dust and water. It also features a USB port to serve as a powerbank to charge your smartphone. Get the Veho M7 Wireless Speaker for £69.99 on eBay.

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Nvidia joined companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Intel, and Google as part of the Open Compute Project (OCP), which aims to make servers more efficient without the high costs while also sharing the designs with the public. Specifically, what Nvidia brought to the table was a new hyperscale GPU accelerator.

The HGX-1, as it’s called, is made up of eight Tesla P100 GPUs, all of which utilize the new Pascal architecture. Depending on the workload, the CPU can designate one or all of the GPUs in the accelerator, a switching procedure that’s said to be based on Nvidia’s NVLink connection technology. When Nvidia announced its membership to the OCP, it did so by partnering with Microsoft, which will use the HGX-1 as part of its Project Olympus server design. The design also works with Intel’s latest Xeon Skylake CPUs, as well as AMD’s new 64-core Naples processor.

According to Roy Kim, Nvidia’s director of Tesla products, the time came for the company to join the OCP because it saw the opportunity to set a new standard in cloud computing.

“The fact is that industry standards accelerate innovation,” he said. “We saw that happening in the past when PC was just getting off the ground. We see that cloud computing is in the same junction in some sense. There’s some different designs in how to do AI, and we felt that working with Microsoft will come up with the standard that will quickly offer AI services.”

Kim also noted that the limit of eight GPUs per accelerator was due to power and design limitations. However, that doesn’t mean that companies won’t be able to connect multiple HGX-1s. Microsoft boasted that the Project Olympus design allows for up to four HGX-1 accelerators to be connected at the same time so that some workloads can utilize the full set of 32 GPUs. Kim mentioned that the HGX-1 isn’t just exclusive to Project Olympus; you can use it on any server design because of its use of PCIe ports.

Because the goal of the OCP is open source-oriented, any cloud vendor can grab the design specs and partner with a manufacturing company to create their own servers. In that regard, Nvidia doesn’t seem to make any profit. Kim said that the goal was to just create a standard for cloud computing.

“HGX-1 is the first instance of what we hope to be a roadmap,” he said. “Standards evolve and workloads evolve, and we’ll continue to work with Microsoft. Our goal was to provide a standard that we believe… is the best design for hyperscalers today.”

You can look at the Tesla P100 GPUs in detail on Nvidia’s website. As for the entire Project Olympus design, you can browse its hardware and specs on GitHub.

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Digital Domain announced that it added Sprawly to its growing portfolio of immersive video and VR technologies. Sprawly’s founders joined Digital Domain as part of the deal.

Digital Domain is a Hollywood visual effects company with a wide range of expertise in immersive technology. Digital Domain had a hand in creating hundreds of motion pictures, commercials, and video games, and recently the company steered its focus towards virtual reality experiences.

In 2015, Digital Domain partnered with Immersive Media to create IM360, which creates high-quality 360-degree video projects such as ABC’s Good Morning America’s 360-degree video segment on the African Safari, and the Nike “CourtVision” experience. Last year, Digital Domain entered the game developer market when it acquired Digital Funk Machine and used the assets to create Digital Domain Interactive. Later, Digital Domain announced a partnership with DreamWork Animation to bring the famous production company’s animated characters to virtual reality experiences.

After Digital Domain and Immersive Media formed IM360, the subsidiary announced the IM360 VR Toolkit, which gives filmmakers a 4K real-time preview of filmed VR content. Digital Domain’s latest strategic purchase strengthens the company’s portfolio of tools for working with 360-degree video. Sprawly developed a toolkit that lets creators built interactive 360-degree video experiences without the need for advanced technical knowledge.

Sprawly’s technology embeds “hotspots” into 360-degree video features that trigger other events, such as jumping to another clip or launching a web page. Sprawly previously offered its technology to anyone who wished to use it. It’s unclear if that will continue now that Digital Domain purchased the company, but the Sprawly website hasn’t changed yet. Digital Domain confirmed that Sprawly’s founders, Bobby Alexis and Eric Neuman, joined the Digital Domain team as part of the deal, though.

“Sprawly’s experience at providing tools for the VR community makes them an ideal addition to Digital Domain,” said Amit Chopra, Executive Director and COO, Digital Domain. “Eric Neuman’s expertise around 360° video interactivity and platform development will be a key skillset for building out our VR Platform, while Bobby Alexis will focus on expanding our footprint in VR and 360° video services across a number of sectors.”

Digital Domain didn’t comment on its immediate plans for Sprawly’s technology.

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After some manufacturing and shipping delays (hey there, Chinese New Year), the XMIT Hall Effect keyboards are arriving on the doorsteps of the 1,000+ people who bought them in a Massdrop buy.

There are, however, some issues. The fellow behind the Drop, José Soltren, sent Tom’s Hardware a statement noting the issues and what he’s doing about them:

Massdrop has been fulfilling boards, and people are starting to receive them. For the most part, folks are getting complete, working boards and are delighted with them. It’s really encouraging to see this positive reaction from the community.

A number of users are finding minor to moderate manufacturing and packaging issues. I’ve been following the forums closely with these issues and jumping in all over the place to provide feedback, take notes, and in some limited cases, send out replacement parts. Folks who have issues should contact Massdrop support, but by posting publicly I’m able to jump in some times.

Users can hit up the discussion boards on the Massdrop to chat about and learn about what others are experiencing. Soltren also noted that he’s taking all the feedback so as to improve future manufacturing processes–he said he already has a list of “50 little improvements” and is optimistic about doing more runs of Hall Effect keyboards. (In other words, if you missed this round, there should be opportunities to buy one in the future.)

Time was, Hall Effect keyboard switches enjoyed some popularity, but the cost of producing them, especially in a market where cheaper mechanical keyboard switches were available, more or less killed them off. However, things change; the cost of making Hall Effect has plummeted, and Soltren is among the few people who saw that as an opportunity to bring them back.

For a primer on how exactly Hall Effect switches work, see the video above.

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Back in November, Hello Games introduced the batch of post-release content for No Man’s Sky in the Foundation Update. Now, the studio just released a new version (1.2) called the “Path Finder” update. This includes new planetary and space vehicles, additional visual features, the ability to see the bases of other players online, and many more additions.

For those on PC, the visual upgrades include support for “high and ultra resolution textures” and even high dynamic range mode. Hello Games also added high contrast lighting effects, multiple filters for the improve post-processing feature, accurate ambient lighting, and horizon-based ambient occlusion. Visual upgrades weren’t just limited to PC, as those on PlayStation 4 Pro will finally be able to play the game in 4K resolution.

The most notable additions around content are the vehicles. There are three planetary vehicles, or “Exocrafts,” that you can build. For scouting, you can use the small yet quick Nomad, whereas the large Colossus can be used for mining expeditions. If you just want to explore the area around you, there’s the Roamer, which is best suited for rugged terrain.

There are also new classifications and classes for spacecraft. Fighters are used for combat, whereas Haulers specialize in carrying cargo. Explorer vehicles have better warp abilities, or you can use a Shuttle for your average, everyday trip. All spacecraft also have a class designation. C-class spacecraft are easily found throughout the galaxy, and you’ll spend a significant amount of time hunting for the rare S-class ship.

Similar to spacecraft, your multi-tool can undergo different class ratings and specializations. Pistols are better for mining, Rifles are used for combat, and Experimental weapons are best suited for scanning. There’s also the rare Alien multi-tool, although it’s unclear as to what you can do with it.

Other content from the update includes a Permadeath Mode for those seeking a tougher challenge than survival. There are also some new weapon modes for your multi-tool and ships, new traders as well as a new currency called Nanite Clusters, and additional components for building your base.

Speaking of bases, the game works with Steam Workshop, where you can upload your custom base. From there, others can take a look at your work and download it onto their game. It’s not the same as randomly encountering other players and their work (mainly because you have to download their content from the Steam Workshop), but it’s a step in the right direction.

The amount of content across these past two updates is plentiful, which bodes well for Hello Games after its controversial launch. Players have more to do than ever before, but it will take some time for former fans to regain trust in the development team. Then again, the addition of content is better late than never. You can check up on the full details of the update on the game’s website.

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