If you like taking a selfie or two, you'll know that lighting is everything. It's crazy the impact lighting has on the outcome of the selfie. If you can catch the day when the sun is just right, you'll have a golden glow and piercing eyes. But not every hour of the day will allow you to get that look.
So, below, we've created a guide for the best time of day for selfies.
Tips for Capturing Your Best Selfie at Any Time of Day
First, we'll give you some tips. No matter the time of day, a few expert tips can significantly enhance the quality of your selfies. Yes, you do need to understand light sources and how they interact with your surroundings. Utilizing natural light is always preferred, but if you're indoors, positioning yourself near windows can offer a similar effect. Always be mindful of the background. A cluttered background, or indeed a backdrop that is distracting, can mess with the subject matter that should be the main focus...you!
Experimenting with angles and poses can also reveal your most flattering sides, and using your camera's timer or a selfie stick can help capture a broader, more dynamic perspective.
And we think it's just as important to consider where the photo is going. If you're using tools like a photo book maker from mysocialbook.com, consider the theme you're going for. Some people like to stick to specific styles of photos. It's the same with Instagram. For people who upload often, you should notice trends about when they take their pictures and the lighting.
Golden Hour
The golden hour has to be the best hour. The sun isn't too bright, and if it's a perfectly sunny day, that golden glow we talked about in the introduction is incredible. The warm, soft light flatters almost any subject. During these times, the sun's angle creates a balanced luminosity that minimizes harsh shadows and overly bright highlights. It allows for a natural, flattering effect on the face.
It doesn't matter if you're an early riser capturing the serene morning light or a night owl reveling in the sunset's glow - the golden hour is the best hour.
Midday Brilliance
The sun's zenith during midday might cast strong shadows. Not everyone likes that. But with some ingenuity, this time can create striking selfies with vivid colors and sharp contrasts. You can use natural reflectors like buildings or light-colored surfaces to mitigate harsh shadows and illuminate your face evenly. But that's serious photography. If you can't make this lighting work at this hour, go for another one.
Twilight Zone
The blue hour might not have the golden hour's fame, but its potential for good selfies is immense. The cool, blue-toned light can create a tranquil, introspective quality to your images. It's ideal for creating a sense of calm or contemplation.
This time of day is perfect for people wanting to add mystery or sophistication to their selfies. The best time for a selfie ultimately depends on the mood and affect you're aiming for. Most people will say it's the golden hour, but it really depends on the finish you're looking for. Whether you prefer the golden warmth of sunrise and sunset, the bold brightness of midday, or the serenity of the blue hour, experimenting with different times will show you how different a selfie can look.
One of our favorite Anker USB-C hubs is on sale for $40 via Amazon. The Anker 555 is typically $50, so this is a discount of 20 percent. This is one of the best hubs money can buy, even at its original price. It made our list of the best MacBook accessories, but its a mighty fine addition to any PC.
The Anker 555 USB-C hub gives you eight ports to connect just about anything under the sun. Theres two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, SD and microSD card slots, one Ethernet jack and two USB-C ports. One of the USB-C ports provides 85W of power to charge various devices, including laptop computers.
It can handle up to 10 Gbps file transfers and can connect to a 4K/60Hz monitor via the HDMI slot. Its also extremely portable, making it easy to just throw in a bag until you need it. To that end, it ships with a nice little travel pouch. We wrote that the Anker 555 has enough power and versatility to be the only laptop hub you need.
The sale extends to other Anker hubs, if the 555 doesnt do it for you. The simply-named Anker USB C Hub also costs $40, which is a discount of 15 percent. It comes with 10 ports, including 4K HDMI, 1080p VGA, USB-C, USB-A, Ethernet and a 100W USB-C charging port. Theres also a slot for SD cards. The transfer speed is a bit slower here, however, at 5 Gbps.
Finally, theres the Anker 565. This hub costs $59 as part of this sale, which is a massive discount of 41 percent. It kicks things up a notch, with 11 available ports. These include a 10 Gbps USB-C data port, a 10 Gbps USB-A data port, a 4K HDMI port, a 4K DisplayPort, a 100W USB-C input port for charging devices, two 480 Mbps USB-A data ports, an Ethernet port, an AUX port and microSD card slots. It also allows for multi-monitor setups, thanks to the aforementioned DisplayPort and HDMI port options.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pick-up-one-of-our-favorite-anker-usb-c-hubs-for-only-40-162451076.html?src=rss
Sony just announced a trio of new speakers in a new line of audio products called the ULT Power Series. This is an attempt by the company to reduce some of the clutter involved with its naming conventions, so say goodbye to the Extra Bass and XE-Series products. Both lines are being wrapped up into the ULT Power Series branding. To suit this new branding, each of the following speakers include something called the ULT button, which provides a bass boost.
The ULT Field 1 is your standard portable Bluetooth speaker. Its compact and comes in a variety of colors, including black, white, gray and orange. The battery lasts around 12 hours per charge and the casing is IP67 water resistant, dustproof and shockproof. Like many of these ultra-portable Bluetooth speakers, the design lets users stand it on its end or lay it on its side, to make use of space. Theres also a built-in mic for hands-free calling. This speaker costs $130 and will be available later this spring at major retail outlets.
Sony
The ULT Field 7 is basically a beefier version of the Field 1. Its bigger, though still portable, and includes two dedicated ULT buttons. One provides deeper bass in the lower frequency range and the other brings a powerful, punchy bass. Theres also plenty of ambient LED lighting that synchronizes with the music.
The battery lasts 30 hours, which is a fantastic metric, and includes quick-charging capabilities. Its also being advertised as a karaoke machine, thanks to the built-in microphone port. Finally, Sony says people can string together up to 100 of these things to make a cacophony of noise thatll really annoy the pants off of their neighbors. Those neighbors, however, are likely to live in a glorious mansion, as just one Field 7 costs $500. They go on sale later this spring.
Sony
The ULT Tower 10 is, as the name suggests, a Bluetooth tower speaker intended for living spaces. This speaker wirelessly connects to stereo systems and TVs for enhanced audio and includes the same two ULT bass boost buttons found with the Field 7. Theres also a sound optimization feature that detects local noise and adjusts the settings to accommodate the surroundings.
The speaker boasts omni-directional synchronized lighting, which Sony says makes listeners feel like they are at a music festival. There are two microphone inputs for belting out karaoke duets and the speaker actually ships with one wireless mic. Listeners can also connect up to 100 compatible speakers at once, including the Field 7. This is one expensive tower speaker, however, so itll set you back $1,200 when it releases later in the season.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sonys-new-ult-bluetooth-speakers-are-bringing-back-the-90s-bass-boost-button-160056401.html?src=rss
Sonys Extra Bass line of headphones has given listeners an added dose of low-end tone for years, and was generally cheaper than its high-end 1000X cans. The company is still keen on offering brain-rattling bass to those who want it, but the Extra Bass moniker and its confusing alpha-numeric product names are gone (more to come on that change). Today, Sony is introducing ULT Power Sound, a feature its calling the ultimate step into the evolution of its portable audio gear.
ULT Power Sound will also be available on Bluetooth speakers of various sizes, but the first headphones to feature the new audio direction are the ULT Wear ($200). A direct replacement for the WH-B910, the ULT Wear contains 40mm drivers that Sony says are specifically designed for deeper bass. If the stock tuning isnt enough, theres a ULT button for two more levels of low-end boost. Plus, the company crammed in some of its best features from more-expensive headphones: the V1 audio chip, 30-hour battery life, Quick Attention mode, 360 Reality Audio with head tracking and more.
The first thing I noticed about the ULT Wear is its design. These headphones dont immediately strike me as less-than-premium cans. The matte white finish on my review unit helps mask the mostly plastic construction which looked cheap on previous products like the WH-CH720N. Its definitely a more refined aesthetic than the WH-XB910 thats being replaced. There are certainly some nods to the premium 1000X line in a few areas, like the curves of the ear cups and headband.
Sony decided on a mix of physical and touch controls for the ULT Wear, which is another way its bridging the gap between its most affordable and most expensive headphones. On the edge of the left ear cup is a power/pairing button and a control for cycling between active noise cancellation (ANC) and ambient sound modes. Further up along the bottom is a third button for ULT bass boost. This item switches between off, ULT 1 (deep bass) and ULT 2 (more powerful sound with deep bass). Over on the right, the outside of the ear cup has a touch panel that you can tap and swipe on for playback controls, volume adjustments and calls.
As the ULT Wear sits in the middle of Sonys headphone lineup, it has a few of the handy features from the 1000X line that the companys cheaper options dont employ. For example, placing your open hand over the right ear cup activates Quick Attention mode that lowers the volume so you can respond to a co-worker or grab your cortado without pausing your tunes. Adaptive Sound Control is here as well: Sonys long-standing tool that automatically adjusts the headphones settings based on your activity or location. General niceties like multipoint Bluetooth and wear detection are present too. The convenient Speak-to-Chat function from more-recent 1000X headphones isnt available though, which is a considerable omission in terms of overall utility.
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget
Bass reigns supreme for the ULT Wears tuning and you certainly get a heavy dose of it. Those new specifically tuned drivers muster a lot of low-end thump before you even start exploring the ULT boosts. The out-of-the-box level was good enough for me for most genres, although the overall sound can get muddy with more chaotic styles like metal and some synth-heavy electronic tracks. For the most part though, the stock bass provides depth and range that complements full mids and cutting highs.
On Baysides There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive, theres a thundering kick drum to drive the punk-tinged indie rock tunes, but the texture of the crunchy distorted guitars stands out and vocals cut through clearly. Plus, you can add Sonys DSEE upscaling through its app, a software trick thats designed to recover sonic elements lost to compression. And if you have access to 360 Reality Audio content, the ULT Wear supports head-tracking so that sounds stay put when you move. This offers a more realistic experience since the immersive audio in this format would otherwise move with your head.
When you hop into the ULT boost modes, things are a mixed bag. Sony has done bass boost better than most other companies here, as songs are still actually listenable across musical styles rather than just becoming a muffled mess. ULT 1, the option for deeper bass, is the best in my opinion. You dont lose much detail using it and things like kick drums are still punchy throughout. Hip-hop tracks are a better canvas, with songs like Killer Mikes Down By Law blasting bombastic, yet finessed, amplified bass. His album Michael is one of the better-sounding selections I tested with ULT 1 enabled.
ULT 2, a setting for more powerful sound alongside even deeper bass, isnt great. During my tests, I didnt find a single track where I thought it sounded good across driving low-end styles like hip-hop and EDM. It sounds like youre standing in front of the subwoofer at a concert where bass is most prominent and everything else gets drowned out. And while Im sure some people enjoy that extent of brain rattling, its not what Im looking for.
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget
Sony improved ANC from the WH-XB910 by installing its V1 audio processor from the 1000X series in the ULT Wear. The result is noticeably improved noise-canceling performance for a set of $200 headphones, but you shouldnt expect distraction-blocking as robust as what the WH-1000XM5 offers. Its good in most situations, but in some scenarios it simply dulls the roar. The ULT Wear does, however, do a decent job with human voices much better than the Sennheiser Accentum Plus I recently reviewed.
The company didnt go out of its way to discuss call quality on the ULT Wear, but the performance here is slightly above average. Its not pristine, but it also doesnt have the obvious speaker phone sound most headphones do. Low-to-mid-volume background noise is also dealt with nicely. Ambient sound mode on the ULT Wear is more natural that what most headphones offer, save for the AirPods Max. You can hear a good amount of your own voice, so youre free to speak at a normal volume during calls. And any sounds from your surroundings come through clear, so you dont have to worry about not hearing alerts or announcements.
Sony says you can expect up to 30 hours of battery life with ANC on or up to 50 hours with it off. The company doesnt specify if either of the ULT modes impact longevity, and I didnt have them on long enough to tell. After 20 hours of use with mostly ANC and several instances of ambient sound for calls, both used at around 50-60 percent volume (trust me thats plenty loud here), Sonys app was showing 44 percent battery left. This is more efficient than the stated figure, but Ill update this review when the full rundown is complete.
If you crave a deep bassy thump that most headphones haven't been able to deliver, the ULT Wear does a much better job boosting low-end tone than Sonys previous efforts. The sound out of the box is certainly boomy, but not at the cost of any detail, and the company gives you the option to add two more servings of bass when you crave it. These wont be for everyone as a lot of people will prefer the more even-handed tuning of Sennheisers Accentum Plus in the $200 range. However, Sony has done well to dress up a more affordable set of headphones as a premium product, in terms of both looks and features.
The ULT Wear headphones are available in black, white and green color options for $200. Sony says they'll start shipping sometime this spring.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-ult-wear-headphones-review-brain-shaking-bass-160000739.html?src=rss
Substack shows are now on Spotify. The partnership lets Substack podcast creators add Spotify distribution for their programs with only a few clicks. The move could boost the streamers library after scaling back its exclusive podcast ambitions last year in favor of broader distribution including a non-exclusive contract renewal with noted vaccine aficionado Joe Rogan.
When listening on Spotify, youll see a padlock (or Paid tag, where applicable) next to Substack podcasts. Youll need to link your Substack account before you can begin listening.
Some Substack podcasts are free, and you can listen to those immediately after linking accounts. For paid programs, youll still need to pony up for those on Substack before you can hear them on Spotify. (The move is less about giving you freebies and more about expanding Substacks audience.) But you dont need Spotify Premium; you can listen to the same Substack content whether youre on a free or paid Spotify plan.
Spotify says podcast creators retain complete control of their content, subscriber bases and revenue. When setting it up, podcast makers need to choose an option to sync with Spotify in their Creator Account settings. That will instantly make all of their current and future programming available on the streaming platform.
The partnership is built on the Spotify Open Access API, which publishers like Calm, The Economist, Freakonomics Radio, Patreon, Dateline NBC and The Wall Street Journal also use to tap into the music platforms listener base. Its easy to see the appeal for creators: Spotify reported 602 million monthly active users and 236 million premium subscribers at the end of 2023.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-now-listen-to-substack-podcasts-on-spotify-150046948.html?src=rss
Apple, a company that talks a big game about sustainability but would love for you to buy a new iPhone every year, is expanding its self-repair program. Consumers and repair shops will soon be able to employ genuine used Apple parts to fix devices rather than having to order brand-new components. The company claims that used parts "will now benefit from the full functionality and security afforded by the original factory calibration, just like new genuine Apple parts."
The initiative will start this fall with iPhone 15 and newer models, according to The Washington Post. So if your iPhone has a busted screen and you have one of the same model with a display that's intact, you'll be able to switch in the panel and it should work. As things stand, if you swap in a used screen from another iPhone, certain features, such as True Tone or automatic brightness adjustment, may not work. The upgraded self-repair program should resolve that.
The program will also cover parts like batteries, cameras and (eventually) Face ID sensors. In addition, consumers and repair shops won't have to provide Apple with a device serial number when ordering most parts from the Self Service Repair Store they'll still need to do so for a logic board replacement.
Users are already able to see whether their iPhone has been repaired and, if so, which parts have been replaced. Starting this fall, those who access the Parts and Service History section of their iPhone settings will be able to see if a replacement part is new or a genuine used one from another iPhone.
Apple will use a "parts pairing" process directly on the phone to detect whether a replacement component is genuine. It says that's necessary to maintain the "privacy, security, and safety of iPhone."
To that end, Apple will be employing its Activation Lock feature to try and dissuade the use of parts from stolen iPhones for repairs. If a device that's being fixed detects that a replacement part was taken from one where Activation Lock or Lost Mode was enabled, Apple will restrict calibration for that part, so it may not work properly.
On one hand, this shift could make it easier for folks to repair a busted iPhone (or eventually another Apple product) if they have a spare with the necessary parts on hand. Repair shops often have bits and bobs culled from many different units that they'll be able to use. That said, this could be seen as Apple attempting to exert more control over the repair process by employing pairing and potentially edging out third-party aftermarket parts.
The company's senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus told the Post that while Apple supports the use of third-party parts in repairs (as long as the device owner is aware of that), it doesn't know how to properly calibrate such components as it would for its own parts.
However, Apple might have to start getting in touch with aftermarket parts manufacturers and figuring out how to do that. A right-to-repair bill that Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed into law last month bans the practice of parts pairing. The idea is to prevent device manufacturers from using that process to stop consumers and repair shops from using third-party components to fix their gizmos. The law will apply to devices built after January 1, 2025.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/iphones-will-soon-be-repairable-with-genuine-used-components-but-parts-pairing-persists-142958993.html?src=rss
Sometimes, youre in bed and the glow from your smart rings optical heart rate sensor creeps into your peripheral vision. It got me thinking about how Samsung (and potentially Apple) will join the smart ring market, and why thats a terrible idea. You see, these companies want devices that make their presence known in your life, embedding themselves in your routine. But smart rings blend into the background on purpose, which limits how much you can, or will want, to do with them.
Back in February, Samsung announced the Galaxy Ring, a health-tracking wearable baked into a ring. When it launches later this year, it will continuously monitor your sleep, breathing, movement and reproductive cycle. Entirely coincidentally, Im sure, Bloomberg reported Apple was also conducting investigations into its own smart ring platform. Both companies are not-so secretly gunning for the Oura Ring, the market leader in finger-worn wearables. And Ive been testing one of these for a long while.
Oura tracks your sleep, temperature, activity, post-exertion recovery and menstrual cycle. Its a marvel of engineering to get so much technology into such a small and elegant package. The downside, if you can call it that, is theres no way to access the data the ring collects, or its insights, unless you have a phone on hand.
But heres the thing: Its not that often I find myself actually opening the app to see what the stats are saying. If I wake up feeling like crap, theres normally a self-evident reason why that needs no further explanation. And on those rare occasions when I wake up and dont know why Im feeling bad, the last thing that would occur to me is to check my phone. Who wants to look at fine-grain data when your head is pounding and your eyes refuse to focus?
That friction, that small gap between having the information there and it being easily accessible is a problem. Yeah, you can get a notification if your "Readiness Score" Oura's proprietary metric for overall health falls below a certain level. But Ive been using this thing for long enough that Ive never taken up the habit, and I suspect others would struggle to do so, too. Its nice to have that information on those rare occasions when Im thinking enough about it to look at my data over a longer period of time. But I cant imagine myself looking at this data once or twice a day.
Its also not that useful for workout tracking, principally because you wont want to risk your $300 gadget in the gym. The first time I took it to work out, I picked up a pair of metal dumbbells, realized their knurled handles were rubbing against the metal of the ring and quickly took it off.
Because theres no direct method of input, its far too easy to forget its there and not make use of its information. If youre all-in on using a ring to track your fitness because you wont wear a smartwatch or fitness tracker, and youre always checking your stats, then itll work for you. But, deep down, I prefer a watch with a display thats easy enough to check as a matter of instinct. And its this that I think should be a concern for Samsung and, potentially, Apple, as they look to move into this space. A smart ring caters to a niche inside a niche quantified self obsessives who refuse to wear a watch. They obviously believe thats enough of a draw to devote time and money to building their own, but Im not sure itll be a blockbuster.
Not to mention these rings only have a few hooks to keep users inside their specific corporate bubble. Both Apple and Samsung have dedicated health-tracking apps and its likely whoever buys one of these will have one fewer reason to switch providers in future. But compare that to the watches, which offer health tracking, messaging, app interactions and mobile payments. Smartwatches are beneficial to these platforms because they help draw together various features from the phone. Rings do not.
Perhaps this is another sight techs biggest players now just need to copy and destroy their smaller rivals rather than striving for new products. Smart rings cater to a small market, albeit one that big tech could dominate with very little time and effort. Especially given the strength of their relative brands, which means these devices will more or less sell themselves to diehard fans. But is that all a new product can be in 2024, and is that what we could or should expect these companies to be doing?This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/smart-rings-are-meant-to-be-invisible-and-thats-a-bad-thing-140927134.html?src=rss
Which digital marketing single-day gigs pay the most? To find out, researchers looked at thousands of publicly available job ads on Fiverr. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
A pivotal shift in programmatic advertising is long due as enhanced measurement practices challenge the traditional ad stack and reshape the economics of programmatic. Learn more. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
Instagram is far from a gleaming example of protecting young people online, having failed to prevent its algorithm from promoting child sexual abuse material. But new features bring some (at least a little?) hope that the platform could become a bit safer. Meta announced it's rolling out new tools meant to protect users against intimate image abuse and sextortion when a person is digitally blackmailed under threat of sharing intimate media.
One of the most significant updates is that nudity protection is coming to private messages. Meta first confirmed it was building this technology back in 2022, and it will automatically activate the tool for users under 18. Once switched on, a machine learning tool will detect and blur images it suspects of containing nudity for the recipient. The analysis happens on the user's device, so messages should remain end-to-end encrypted without Meta ever having access to them. Users will have the option to view the image alongside a pop-up message from Meta that they shouldn't feel pressured to respond, along with a safety tips button and an option to block the sender.
Meta's new tool which it will start testing "soon" also detects if a person is sending a nude image and warns them to "take care when sharing sensitive photos" while outlining potential risks. Plus, it reminds users that they can delete a message before anyone sees it. Then there's the final warning: a reminder to be responsible and respectful appears when someone tries to forward a message with detected nudity (though it still lets the image be forwarded).
Then there are the tools designed to detect potential scammers or sextortionists and make it more difficult for them to approach teens. Message requests from these possible bad actors should now go to hidden requests, and anyone already involved in a conversation will receive a warning with boundary reminders and steps to report users. As for young people, Meta previously barred people from messaging users 16 or under if they weren't mutually connected even if the other account claimed to be the same age. Now, these potential scammers won't see the option to message a teen even if they follow each other.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instagram-will-test-nudity-protection-in-messages-to-fight-sextortion-131516318.html?src=rss
