Samsung’s Freestyle is a $900 portable projector you might actually want to use

Samsung is taking pre-orders for a new $900 portable projector that the company is positioning as much more than a gadget for beaming movies onto your wall. The Freestyle is a small, cylindrical device that measures about 6.8″ x 4″ x 3.7″ and weighs 1.8 pounds when used with a stand. It can project 1080p […]

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Samsung is taking pre-orders for a new $900 portable projector that the company is positioning as much more than a gadget for beaming movies onto your wall.

The Freestyle is a small, cylindrical device that measures about 6.8″ x 4″ x 3.7″ and weighs 1.8 pounds when used with a stand. It can project 1080p video at up to 100 inches, has a built-in 5W 360-degree speaker, and while it doesn’t have a built-in battery, it works with USB-PD power banks that support 50W/20V or higher output. You can even plug it directly into a standard E26 light socket using an adapter.

That opens up interesting new possibilities because, in addition to beaming imagery at your wall, you can shine it down onto a table to view videos or presentations, for example.

Samsung says there’s also an “ambient mode and translucent lens cap” that allows The Freestyle to “provide mood lighting” effects. And it can work as a smart speaker, streaming music directly over the internet from supported services while beaming visualizations onto a wall, floor, or ceiling thanks to an adjustable stand.

The Freestyle runs similar Smart TV software to what you’d get if you bought a recent Samsung TV, and also supports screen mirroring and casting from Android or iOS devices. You can also mirror content from The Freestyle to another Samsung Smart TV nearby, allowing two people in different rooms to watch the same thing at the same time (or for you to keep watching when you move from room to room).

It has USB-C and micro HDMI ports, a built-in microphone for voice controls, and the projector comes with a 60W USB-C power adapter, lens cap, and a remote control with a mic key, navigation buttons, and dedicated Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Samsung TV Plus buttons.

The projector will automatically align pictures if even if it’s not positioned on a perfectly flat surface, and it can calibrate colors even if it’s not shining on a perfectly white wall or screen. Image size will vary depending on location: Samsung says when positioned 2.6 feet from a surface, you’ll get a virtual 30″ screen, but if you move The Freestyle back to a distance of 8.8 feet you get a virtual 100″ big screen display.

With an LED light capable of 550 lumens, it’s not the brightest projector around, so you’ll probably get best results in a fairly dim environment. But all told, the display has an interesting combination of features that helps set it apart from other portable projectors… and which might even justify the $900 asking price and the ridiculously styled name (it’s officially “The Freestyle,” not the “Freestyle”).

Other features include support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2, a 300:1 contrast ratio, support for HDR10 content, yes, support for Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant service as well as Amazon’s Alexa service.

press release

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Entangled microwave photons may give 500x boost to radar

Stretched, entangled microwave pulses are the key.

Entangled microwave photons may give 500x boost to radar

Enlarge (credit: NASA)

Quantum radar has been on the… ahem… radar for a while now. Unfortunately, the theoretical and practical results from our explorations of the concept have been underwhelming. But before we get to the disappointments, let me give all you radar enthusiasts a reason for hope. A new paper demonstrates that, under conditions of low signal-to-noise ratios (at the edge of the radar’s classical range), employing quantum technologies may offer a very significant boost in accuracy.

Quantum radar?

Radar, at its simplest, involves sending out pulses of radiation that reflect off an object. The reflected signal is detected, and the time of flight is measured. The time of flight is then translated into a range, while the direction that the radar antenna was pointed when it picked up the reflection tells us the direction.

The horrible thing about radar is that the signal drops off very rapidly—as the fourth power of the distance. This is because the power of the radiation we send out drops as the square of the distance between the transmitter and the object. And then it drops as the square of the range again after it's reflected and has to travel back to the receiver. You get clobbered by the inverse square rule twice.

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Biden’s vaccine mandates come before the Supreme Court

Do existing regulations apply, or must Congress step in?

The US Supreme Court building in Washington DC.

Enlarge / The US Supreme Court building in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | Mike Kline)

On Friday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases that could severely limit the federal government's ability to set public health policy during the pandemic. At issue is whether existing health and safety authority given to federal agencies by Congress is broad enough to cover the pandemic or whether Congress needs to step in and explicitly authorize the agencies' actions.

The arguments occur as the US sees an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases. Indeed, two of the state lawyers arguing against these new public health measures were caught up in that surge and had to participate in the hearings remotely.

For and against

Two separate cases are being heard today, both regarding executive actions taken by the Biden administration. The first case involves a rule, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), covering all health care workers at facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid. The rule requires these workers to be vaccinated unless they are exempted on medical or religious grounds. The second case involves a vaccine-or-test mandate issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); the mandate would apply to any businesses with 100 or more employees.

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Daily Deals (1-07-2022)

I picked up a set of refurbished Sony WF-SP800N true wireless sport earbuds a few months ago when I was looking for a set of decent-sounding sweat-resistant earbuds with support for noise cancellation that I could use while exercising. At the time they were on sale for less than $40, which a massive discount over […]

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I picked up a set of refurbished Sony WF-SP800N true wireless sport earbuds a few months ago when I was looking for a set of decent-sounding sweat-resistant earbuds with support for noise cancellation that I could use while exercising. At the time they were on sale for less than $40, which a massive discount over the $198 list price and while they’re a bit heavy and the noise cancellation is pretty basic, the noise isolation is good and the audio quality is decent. Overall I’ve been very happy with the purchase.

Today Secondipity has the refurbished Sony WF-SP800N earbuds on sale for $50, which isn’t quite as good a deal. But it’s still a pretty great price, especially considering that while they’re refurbished, the earbuds come with a 2-year warranty thanks to eBay’s partnership with AllState. Or you can pay an extra $10 for a pair of refurbished Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds which are said to have much better audio quality and noise-cancellation, but which lack the water and sweat resistance.

There are also a number of other deals on wireless earbuds and headphones from Sony and Jabra in today’s deals roundup.

Wireless earbuds

Wireless over-ear headphones

Other

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Amazon’s Fallout TV series is about to enter production

“War… war never changes.”

A screenshot from <em>Fallout 4</em>, the most recent main entry in the game franchise.

Enlarge / A screenshot from Fallout 4, the most recent main entry in the game franchise. (credit: Bethesda)

Amazon Prime Video's adaptation of the Fallout franchise of video games is entering production this year, and its two lead writers have been named, according to reports in Deadline and Variety.

It was previously known that Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy (who worked together on HBO's Westworld) would be executive producers, and Variety and Deadline both report that Nolan will direct the first episode of the show.

But Nolan and Joy will not be the primary creative leads on the series. Rather, Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner have been attached as showrunners.

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Final reminder: Donate to win swag in our annual Charity Drive sweepstakes

Mere hours left to add to a charity haul of nearly $38,000 so far.

Final reminder: Donate to win swag in our annual Charity Drive sweepstakes

Enlarge (credit: CanStockPhoto)

If you've been too busy playing the best games of 2021 to take part in this year's Ars Technica Charity Drive sweepstakes, you're running out of time to donate to a good cause and get a chance to win your share of over $1,600 worth of swag (no purchase necessary to win). The deadline is 11:59 pm EST tonight (Friday).

Over the past few weeks, over 300 readers have contributed almost $38,000 to either the Electronic Frontier Foundation or Child's Play as part of the charity drive (EFF is now leading in the donation totals by about $8,000). That's still a bit off from last year's record haul of over $58,000, but it's quickly approaching the previous record of $38,861.06 set in 2015.

If you've put it off this long, don't do so any longer! There are only a few hours left to get your entry recorded and help a good cause at the same time.

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Open Plattform: Telekom ernennt neuen Group Technology Officer

Die Telekom tauscht ohne größere Ansage den Technology Officer des Konzerns aus. Abdu Mudesir steht für offene Plattformen im Festnetz und auch für Open RAN. (Open RAN, NEC)

Die Telekom tauscht ohne größere Ansage den Technology Officer des Konzerns aus. Abdu Mudesir steht für offene Plattformen im Festnetz und auch für Open RAN. (Open RAN, NEC)

TinyNES is a compact game console that plays NES cartridges using the same chips as the original

There’s no shortage of ways to play classic Nintendo games these days, but most of them rely on emulation and/or illegally downloading game ROMS from the internet. The TinyNES takes a different approach. It’s a brand new micro-console that has the same processors as the original Nintendo Entertainment System, which means it has native support […]

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There’s no shortage of ways to play classic Nintendo games these days, but most of them rely on emulation and/or illegally downloading game ROMS from the internet. The TinyNES takes a different approach. It’s a brand new micro-console that has the same processors as the original Nintendo Entertainment System, which means it has native support for the original game cartridges, despite the console itself being about the size of a cartridge.

The TinyNES went up for pre-order via a Crowd Supply crowdfunding campaign in December, and the developer hopes to begin shipping the micro-console to backers before the end of May.

Since the new system has the same Ricoh RP2A03 CPU and Ricoh RP2C02 picture processing unit as the NES, you shouldn’t run into any compatibility issues when playing NES games on the TinyNES. The new device also isn’t region locked.

Like the original NES, it has two ports for game controllers on the back, analog RCA audio and video ports, an on/off switch, power input, and a reset button. And that’s about it.

There’s no support for upscaling, HDMI output, internet connectivity, or any other modern features. If you want to use the TinyNES with a modern TV, that means you’re probably going to need some sort of video adapter.

If you’re wondering why you’d drop up to $199 on a new console with the same limitations as the original rather than hunting down a used NES on eBay, the TinyNES does have a few things going for it.

First, it’s a lot smaller than an NES, at just 138.5 x 130 x 32.5mm (5.45″ x 5.12″ x 1.28″) compared with 256 x 203.2 x 88.9mm (10.08″ x 8″ x 3.5″) for the original. Incidentally, a Nintendo cartridge is 133 x 120 x 20mm (5.25″ x 4.75″ x 0.75″).

Second, the TinyNES uses less power than the original. And third, the hardware is fully open source, which means anyone can access the design files to inspect, modify, or make your own version of the console or even produce and sell their own derivative system, as long as it keeps the open source licensing.

The developer has obtained a limited supply of the Ricoh RP2A03 and RP2C02 chips, which are no longer manufactured. But the TinyNES mainboard is designed so that the chips can be fitted into sockets without any soldering, which makes it possible to upgrade the board or replace the processor.

And if $199 is a little too steep a price for you, there is a slightly cheaper option: a limited number of TinyNES systems will use UMC UA6527 CPU and UA6528 PPU chips instead of the original Ricoh chips. These are basically clones of the original chips with nearly identical functionality and if there’s enough demand for the TinyNES for the developer to continue making units after the supply of Ricoh chips has been exhausted, future models will most likely only be available with these chips.

You can find more information and/or reserve a TinyNES at Crowd Supply.

via Hackster and Gizmodo

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