Samsung Galaxy S IV design, specs potentially leaked on Twitter

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/04/samsung-galaxy-s-iv-design-specs-potentially-leaked-on-twitter/

Even as the secret of Samsung's Galaxy S IV has been handed off to some teenager, the @evleaks Twitter account (which has been reliable in the past) just posted a supposed pic of and specs for the phone. Along with what's clearly a rendering or drawing, the specs list a Super AMOLED Full HD screen of unknown size, 16GB/32GB/64GB storage options with 2GB of RAM, a 13MP camera and Android 4.2 OS. A second image shows the same mockup alongside previous Galaxy phones confirming its status as the largest one yet, although that's not surprising given recent trends. Of course, given what we know about the lengths Samsung went to protect the design of the Galaxy S III (multiple designs, hand-delivered prototypes), you'll forgive us for reserving judgement until the real thing is shown off on March 14th.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Source: evleak! s (Twitt er) (1), (2)

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Intel launches Atom CE5300-based storage platform with multiple streams, smart scaling

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/04/intel-launches-atom-ce5300-based-storage-platform/

There's been more than a few Atom-based storage servers. Most of them either have to lean on the same Atom processors you'd usually get with nettops, though, which makes them less than ideal for media tasks than a chip dedicated to the job. Intel has just launched a new platform that might be a better fit for home network storage. New NAS arrays from Asustor, Synology, Thecus and others (none yet pictured here) all revolve around a dual-core Atom CE5300 system-on-chip that's better-optimized for media processing duties: it can stream video across the network to multiple devices at once, and can automatically downscale video to accommodate smaller screens. The small chip contributes to a relatively small price at the same time, with NAS boxes starting around $299. Not everyone can suddenly justify a dedicated media server in the home just because the CE5300 is an option, but those that do may at least get more for their money.

Filed under: Storage, Networking, HD, Intel

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Source: Intel

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This App Makes Conference Calls Completely Free And Painless

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/unison-conference-calls-2013-3

Unison is essentially a social network for the workplace, letting people collaborate and get updates on what people are up to regardless of where they are.

And one of its most compelling features will have you getting rid of whatever conference call service you use – "instant live group conversations."

As soon as you log in to Unison, you can share your audio with everyone on your team that's also logged in to the same Unison "room." While you're working, you only need to speak out loud to get the attention of everyone else.

No more long phone numbers and PIN numbers.

Here's what Unison co-founder Rurik Bradbury had to say about it:

Conference calls always have some innate level of confusion – dial-in codes, bad connections from people's cellphones, people simply not joining and having no idea who's on. It saps hours from most businesses' lives because it's so pervasive. Unison's a case of everyone logging onto their computer (even in a browser) and hitting 'talk live.'"

Intrigued?

Check out our tour of Unison here >

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A Giant iPhone Will Look Stunning

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5988345/a-giant-iphone-will-look-stunning

If you shut your eyes and listen closely, you'll hear the clop-clop of the inevitable: an iPhone that keeps getting bigger and bigger. And as much as we generally hate phablets, if an iPhone Plus looked like this, we'd melt.

Gizmodo reader Martin Hajek put together these gorgeous renders for Nowhereelese.fr, which imagine the iPhone Plus as a 4.8-inch wonder that eschews a physical home button for a display that clicks at its bottom—a terrific idea on its own, actually. There's barely any bezel, allowing for Biggie Phone that's virtually nothing but screen and lovely iOS. No clutter, not a stylus to be spied, and seamless aluminum in black or grey.

I'll take the latter, because I'm nostalgic for the old rear end of the original iPhone.

The only work that'd remain is figuring out a means of controlling such a big phone, comfortably, with one hand, or retooling the whole device to make better sense with two mitts. As we've agonized over, once you start going beyond four inches, a phone can become hostile to the hand holding it. But if the thing looks like this, we'll have to make concessions. Maybe. But looking great and being great will never be one in the same when it comes to phones. [nowhereelse.fr]

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How Your Smartphone Will Get Lytro-Like Superpowers

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5988341/how-your-smartphone-will-get-lytro+like-superpowers

As neat as they are, the Lytro camera's re-focusing tricks aren't going to convince most of us to replace our highly pocketable cameraphones. So a California company called DigitalOptics has found a way to give us the best of both worlds with a new ultra-thin sensor that promises Lytro-like tricks.

Instead of employing clever 'light field technology' like the Lytro, the Mems|Cam simply snaps a series of photos with varying depth of fields in quick succession, and then combines them all into a single image that allows you to change the focal point afterwards. It's not only a less complicated approach, but the images from the new sensor could be as large as 13 megapixels in size, compared to the Lytro's measly one-megapixel.

It sounds like a win-win development that surprisingly gets even better because the Mems|Cam sensor is created with 'micro-electro-mechanical systems' technology that results in ultra-thin electronics with incredibly low energy consumption. To the point where this new sensor uses about one percent of the energy of a traditional cameraphone sensor, and facilitates handset form factors as thin as five millimeters. At the moment there are no official announcements as to what hardware manufacturer will be adopting the Mems|Cam sensor, but it's already ready to ship and should be appearing in phones later this year. [Digital Trends via PetaPixel]

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Google to monitor unused white space across the US, take us one step closer to spectrum sharing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/04/google-to-monitor-unused-white-space-across-the-us-take-us-one/

One of the biggest hold-ups in the global deployment of LTE and long-range WiFi is a lack of available spectrum. Even when a particular frequency is free and usable for mobile broadband, it's often officially reserved for some other purpose. Google's charitable wing, Google.org, has long claimed that as much as 6 MHz of white space kept aside for TV channels in the US is actually untapped, and now it's going to get a chance to prove the point. The FCC has just granted it a 45-day window in which to run a trial public database (linked below) to keep track of exactly which bits of spectrum are free in which parts of the country.

If all goes well, Google should find itself among up to ten other organizations that are allowed to supervise spectrum sharing -- in other words, allowing mobile devices to temporarily exploit available TV spectrum that isn't being used by the primary holder. Google's ultimate aim, we're told, is simply to "improve connectivity" at a global level. As to whether the other nine names on the FCC's list -- like Microsoft and Ericsson-owned Telcordia -- are equally altruistic, we have absolutely no idea.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Google

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Google.org Official Blog, Google.org's Spectrum Database

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Supposed Galaxy S4 Spec List Suggests Eight-Core Processor

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5988263/supposed-galaxy-s4-spec-list-suggests-eight+core-processor

Someone who claims to be in possession of a Galaxy S4 prototype decided it would be fun to benchmark it, giving us a look at how the phone might, possibly, perform and what might be inside Samsung's next Android flagship.

The Antutu benchmark test reports that the S4 is powered by Samsung's own Exynos 5410 chipset, with its eight cores running at 1.8GHz clock speed. It's coupled with a PowerVR SGX 544 graphics processor, with 2GB of RAM onboard. The S4 in this allegedly current state also feature a 4.99″ display running at 1920×1080 resolution, with Android 4.2 the phone's launch OS.

The tested machine featured GSM and LTE radio capability, meaning one version of the device ought to launch worldwide. And there's a 13-Megapixel camera in it.

No holes can be picked in those specs. If, of course, these results are genuine—so best keep a grain of salt to hand for now. We're expecting Samsung to give us all a good look at 2013′s inevitably massively successful phone on March 14. [Sam Mobile]

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Our newest offspring Gizmodo UK is gobbling up the news in a different timezone, so check them out if you need another Giz fix.

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CloudKafé Indexes All of your Content in the Cloud

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5988013/cloudkafe-indexes-all-of-your-content-in-the-cloud

CloudKafé is a free, attractive webapp that helps you search through all the documents, photos, and videos you have scattered across the web.

Once you create a CloudKafé account, you can connect it to your various cloud services. The site supports major players like Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, YouTube, Google Drive, and more, so most everyone should be covered. Once your accounts are connected, you can search them all with a single search box, and get instant results organized by file type. The concept and execution is similar to previously-mentioned Mac app Found, but as a web app, CloudKafé will work on any platform.

As a relatively new service, CloudKafè isn't perfect. For example, I couldn't get it to pull in my Facebook photos. Still though, it's worth checking out if your digital life is spread across the web.

CloudKafé via AddictiveTips

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Would You Watch a Stream Of Pure Ads To Earn Free Streaming Movies?

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5988076/would-you-watch-a-stream-of-pure-ads-to-earn-free-streaming-movies

Free streaming is supported by ads. It's just a feature of the form. You see it in Spotify, Pandora, Hulu, even YouTube. But you usually don't get the chance to separate the two and control your ad-seeing power. HitBliss is looking to change that.

By signing up for the HitBliss service and offering up your soul to be targeted by ad after ad after ad after ad, you can earn credit on the HitBliss store to stream the movies of your choice. Ones that they've got to offer anyway. It's prostitution, in a way, but hey: free, legal streaming movies. Would you sell your eyeballs and brain-time for that? Try to cheat the system? Ignore it all and keep pirating? [Mashable]

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Polaroid to make Socialmatic Camera a reality for fans of Instagram, recursion

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/01/polaroid-to-make-socialmatic-camera-a-reality/

Instagram owes its distinctive identity to Polaroid's OneStep cameras; it's now time to return the favor. Socialmatic has signed a deal for a production, Polaroid-branded version of its 2012 Socialmatic Camera concept you see above, which translates the mobile app's retro icon to a real-world, instant-print shooter. While technical details are scarce, the agreement will see accessory maker C&A Marketing build and sell the design sometime in the first quarter of 2014. If the finished Polaroid work is anything like the concept, it could be more than a novelty with its interchangeable lens system, 4.3-inch touchscreen, Bluetooth, WiFi and 16GB of storage. We don't know if the camera will ship with Android, but we hope it does -- there would be an appropriately Xzibit-like aspect to running Instagram on top of an Instagram-shaped camera.

Filed under: Cameras

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Via: DVICE

Source: Socialmatic

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The 'Great Rotation' Out Of Investing

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-great-rotation-out-of-investing-2013-3

Since 2004, interest in 'stocks' and 'bonds' has plunged by more than 50%. Despite a renaissance for bonds in 2008, and stocks in 2009, the 'Great Rotation' appears to be 'out of investing'. Google Trends also shows that, as expected, 'Bonds' have been more popular than 'Stocks' since the crash - a development the Fed is so desperately trying to reverse, by imposing ever stricter central planning, ironically the reason why most have "just said no" to an authoritarian, inefficient, and farcical policy instrument formerly known as the market. Is it any wonder so many retail brokerages, commission-takers, and asset-gatherers are advertising day-in, day-out and constantly reassuring with the "it'll all be 'ok' in the long-run" meme?

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The Miracle Bendy Displays of the Future Are Still Years Away

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5987599/the-miracle-bendy-displays-of-the-future-are-still-years-away

The frustration with devices like a hypothetical iWatch—or a completely imaginary roll-up tablet (maybe a Vaio or something?)—is that they're made up of parts, and sometimes those parts don't exist quite yet. Or, in the case of Corning's brilliantly flexible Willow glass, they exist, but no one knows quite how to use them yet.

The bottom line, according to a recent Bloomberg interview? All the bendy gadgets you've ever dreamed of are possible. Just not quite yet.

Companies like Apple and other major OEMs have had access to Willow Glass since June, according to Corning Glass Technologies president James Clappin. But the nature of the material—broad sheets that can roll up like a newspaper—has left its partners stymied over how exactly to implement it:

"People are not accustomed to glass you roll up," Clappin said after an event marking the opening an $800 million factory for liquid-crystal-display glass. "The ability of people to take it and use it to make a product is limited."

Clappin's timeline? Three years. Three years before we see what's probably the next truly life-altering breakthrough in gadgetry.

That may seem like a long time to wait for an iWatch (assuming you care about that sort of thing in the first place), and who knows? It could also just be a head-fake. We could see Willow glass products in our stockings this Christmas. But even if it's the full three years—or longer, that's three years that companies have to plan out the software, the guts, the design, all the other pieces to the flexible tech puzzle. Three years to dream, to plan, to build. The future feels a long way off, sure. But at least we'll be ready for it. [Bloomberg]

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Some People Are Filming a "Documentary" Using Google Glass in New York Right Now

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5987675/some-people-are-filming-a-documentary-using-google-glass-in-new-york-right-now

There's a lot of really weird stuff that happens on any given day in New York City. Which is why I like to take the occasional day off during the week just to walk around and take in my surroundings. Take, for example, this random video shoot I came across of some grungy folks equipped with Google Glass in the Lower East Side.

When asked if they were shooting a commercial for Glass, the production guys told me they were helping out with a "documentary" and that it wasn't a commercial. Bullshit. I mean, Glass isn't available to the public yet (duh) and there aren't even very many Google employees who have them in New York.

Now, this isn't the first time Glass has been spotted in New York but it's the first time I've personally come across it here. The other time was at I/O last year when I tried on Sergey's own personal pair. It was underwhelming given the demo mode was embarrassingly dated, as Brin told us before a few of us donned the glass-less Glass.

Anyway, my feeble attempts to glean any more knowledge about this shoot were thwarted by the fact that, well, I knew what they were and I was asking too many questions. Also, #ifihadglass I would have snapped some higher quality shots than the ones here in this story because, you know, when there's a creepy dude circling around with this phone out, you tend to go and hide in the production truck.

There were four or five Glass wearers, most of them cyclists, sitting in front of Frank's Chop Shop waiting for… something. They milled about for a few more minutes and quickly descended into the tattoo shop next door to shoot their "documentary." And thus ended my brief encounter with Glass in New York, which was quickly followed by an insistent homeless or psychotic person—or both?— who wanted to shake everyone's hand.

We'll see in a few months time if they were shooting a doc or another commercial about some grungy older cyclists getting tattoos in New York. Honestly, if nothing else it's just refreshing to see someone use Glass for something other than a skydive.

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Solidoodle 3D printing stores set to bring 'upscale fashion shopping' to Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/28/solidoodle/

Looking for an "upscale fashion shopping experience" in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan or Belarus? Solidoodle's got your back. The company is set to launch 3D printing stores in those areas, featuring its low cost 3D printers and "lifestyle" items created on said devices. The Russian store is set to be the first to open this summer. The company also used its press conference today to announce plans to sell printers in Brazil, Canada, Korea and Japan, as well as a join initiative with Georgia Institute of Technology's Mars Society to test the devices in "harsh environments like Mars" (places like Utah, apparently). More info on the announcements can be found in an exceedingly enthusiastic press release after the break.

Filed under: Peripherals

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Autodesk releases Socialcam 5.0 with HDR video, color correction

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/28/Autodesk-socialcam-HDR-video/

Autodesk's been trying to bring its special effects expertise to bear on various handheld apps, and now its turning to cameras with its first release of Socialcam (version 5), since it bought the app last July. With the release, it's bringing updated visual effects, 720P resolution, HDR video with one-click mapping, color correction and a new logo to the to the app's estimated 20 million users. You'll be able to grab it gratis for iOS at the App Store today, or on Play for Android at an unspecified date next week. We're not sure if future releases will include the ability to add creatures to your vacation snaps, but we can always dream. There's more info in the PR after the break, or hit the source to grab it.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets

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Source: App Store

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