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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

WiFi-equipped Arduino Yun now available for $69 (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/11/arduino-yun-now-available/

If you were wondering what happened to the Arduino Yun after it missed its original June release target, you can relax: it's now on sale worldwide. As promised, the $69 (€52) design combines a garden variety Leonardo board with a WiFi system-on-chip running Limino, giving owners a customizable wireless access point with Ethernet, USB and a microSD slot. Tinkerers can also program the Arduino component over the air using a newly updated developer environment. Those already sold on the concept can buy an Arduino Yun at the source link, while newcomers can check out an introductory video after the break.

Filed under: Misc, Networking

Via: Arduino Blog

Source: Arduino Store

Gogo's hybrid GTO technology bringing 60Mbps download capability to airlines in 2014

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/11/gogoshybrid-gto-in-flight-wifi-enhanced-speeds/

In a way, in-flight WiFi still seems like the future. It's the internet, in the air, while traveling at 30,000+ feet. Clearly, just having access isn't good enough, as a smattering of opponents have stepped into a segment long dominated by Gogo with snazzier, satellite-based alternatives. Over the past few years, ViaSat has stepped up in an effort to offer flyers something that Gogo's existing services won't: streaming video. While Gogo's air-to-ground network is great for latency, it struggles with bandwidth, as anyone on a crowded flight from JFK to SFO will likely attest. Today, Gogo has taken the wraps off of GTO (Ground to Orbit), described as a hybrid technology that will be "capable of delivering more than 60Mbps to the aircraft." For those keeping score, that's a 20-fold increase from where Gogo started just a few years ago.

We spoke to a company representative leading up to the reveal, who confirmed that GTO is a proprietary offering, and will lean on satellites for the downlink while using existing ground-based transceivers for the uplink. For users, that means that latency will remain low, uploads will remain sluggish, and downloads will improve dramatically. Gogo points out that precious little will need to change for airlines to take advantage; there's a new antenna, which is actually half as large as the existing one, but most everything else will remain the same. Virgin America will be the launch partner of the new service, which is expected to be available in the second half of 2014; we asked if any other airlines were onboard beyond that, but were left to make assumptions for ourselves.

Filed under: Transportation, Internet

Source: Gogo

Intel details Z3000 Bay Trail chips for tablets and hybrids, claims up to 2x CPU and 3x GPU performance

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/11/intel-announces-new-bay-trail/

Intel barely existed on the mobile scene two years ago, and yet the company's Clover Trail chips for low-power tablets and hybrids have already had a huge impact on the Windows PC market -- not least by rendering Windows for ARM (aka Windows RT) largely redundant. But Clover Trail's performance in devices like the Acer Iconia W3 or Lenovo IdeaTab Lynx is far from perfect, especially with Windows 8 desktop applications and anything that involves 3D graphics, and that's why we're more than ready for its successor: Bay Trail, which is based on the next-generation 22nm Silvermont architecture. Intel has today detailed three families of Bay Trail chips, the most interesting of which is undoubtedly the Z3000-series for tablet form factors, and you can catch up on these new SoCs right after the break.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Intel

This Plan To End Smartphone Obsolescence With Lego-Like Block Components Is Mindboggling

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/phonebloks-2013-9

phonebloks

When smartphones crap out, it's all too often that they end up in a landfill and they stick around for a few centuries and make friends with the rest of our garbage.

Dave Hakkens sees things a different way, however. He notes that when a smartphone kicks the bucket, it's usually just a single component that needs to be fixed. What if there were a device that were part Android and part Legos, literally enabling you to build a custom phone from prefabricated parts to meet your needs. Instead of colorful plastic bricks, however, you're recombining GPS, Wi-Fi, battery, and other smartphone components until you have the phone that's right for you.

This is all still just an idea (though the site touts a September 16 launch), but you can see how far ahead Hakkens is thinking. For people who don't care about on-device storage, they can get set up with a bigger battery. For photobugs, they can attach a higher-quality camera

If you're interested and want to help make this phone a reality, you can learn more here. Check out the video below to get the whole picture.

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This Gaming PC Is Smaller Than a Controller But Still Packs a Punch

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-gaming-pc-is-smaller-than-a-controller-but-still-p-1291326222

This Gaming PC Is Smaller Than a Controller But Still Packs a Punch There are plenty of gaming PCs designed to replace consoles, but if you're short on space that normally means accepting something underpowered like the Ouya. But this little guy, called the Gigabyte Brix II, is both powerful and petite.

DisplayLink's adaptor streams 4K content over USB 2.0 and 3.0 (eyes-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/10/displaylink-4k-video-over-usb/

DisplayLink's been wringing all kinds of connectivity out of our computer's USB ports for years, turning one connection into many. It should come as no surprise, then, that the company's using its considerable compression expertise to send high-resolution 4K video through that very same pipe. Ideally, the system shoots video over USB 3.0, while still giving users the full connectivity options of any compatible DisplayLink device -- but it can also function using USB 2.0, though the dynamically compensating data compression at work may cause some frames to drop.

We chatted with Displaylink's Director of Marketing, Andy Davis, about the feature and he informed us that the new 4K capability comes courtesy of a chip design first revealed back at CES that, while upping the max resolution of transmitted video, has no trouble driving multiple displays. In theory,the number of 4K screens the chip can drive is only limited by the graphics drivers and video decoding capabilities of the computer it's connected to. And, the new architecture also enables wireless streaming of 4K video using 802.11ad and can stream 1080p video over 802.11ac (4K over 802.11ac is in the works). We got to see a brief demo of the technology in action, and the video played back flawlessly over USB 3.0 for the few minutes we saw it work. Using 2.0, we noticed a slight flicker once or twice during playback, but the feed was still quite watchable. All in all, its a nice addition to the DisplayLink feature set. Now if they'd just let us know when we'll actually see it implemented in something we can buy.

Filed under: Displays, Misc, HD

Exynos 5 Octa demos 8 cores working at once and other feats of CPU strength (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/11/exynos-5-octa-demos-8-cores-working-at-once-gpu-assist-and-ener/

Just in case yesterday's news that Samsung is ready to enable new features on its Exynos 5 Octa chips wasn't clear, ARM has published a few demo videos to show what it can do. All three are embedded after the break, and the first one highlights how the Exynos 5 Octa 5420 can activate some or all of its 8 cores to maximize responsiveness while launching and using Quickoffice. As you can see above in the screenshot, all eight cores are activated while launching the app, then unused ones switch off for more efficiency. Another video shows how it runs Angry Birds Rio on just the four Cortex-A7 "LITTLE" side of the CPU, rarely activating any of their more power-hungry A15 friends. The last demo video shows how its Mali-T628 GPU activates to process images faster and more efficiently than the CPU alone can.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Samsung

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Article: How Wi-Fi Direct Works As A Gateway To The Internet Of Things

Wi-Fi Direct is an emerging wireless standard that allows you to create a create a connection between any two devices without going through a wireless router. Want to create a Wi-Fi hotspot, connect your computer or smartphone to your printer or stream movies from your tablet to your television? ...

http://readwrite.com /2013/09/10/what-is-wi -fi -direct

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Article: Intel CEO Brian Krzanich shows working 14nm SoC laptop, announces sub $100 tablets at IDF 2013 Mobile

Many eyes may be shifted south of San Francisco to a shindig in Cupertino, but Intel's making some waves in the city. Just now onstage at IDF 2013, CEO Brian Krzanich showed off a functioning laptop running on a 14nm Intel SoC. Naturally, Krzanich didn't deal any other details about the laptop, b...

http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/10/intel-ceo-brian-krzanich -shows-working-14nm-soc -laptop-announce/

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Intel announces Quark system on a chip, the company's smallest to date

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/10/intel-quark-soc/

The hits keep coming from IDF. After showing off svelte new 14nm silicon built for laptops, CEO Brian Krzanich announced a brand new SoC series named Quark. It's the smallest SoC the company has ever built, one-fifth the size of an Atom chip, and is built upon an open architecture meant so spur its use. Early on in his keynote, Krzanich said that Intel plans to "lead in every segment of computing," and Quark is positioned to put Intel in wearables -- and, in fact, he even showed off a prototype smartwatch platform Intel constructed to help drive wearable development. And, Intel President Renee James pointed out that Quark's designed for use in integrated systems, so we'll be seeing Quark in healthcare and municipal use cases, too. Unfortunately, no details about the new SoC's capabilities or specs are yet available, but we can give you some shots of Intel's wearable wristband prototype in our gallery below.%Gallery-slideshow83631%

Filed under: Intel

iPhone 5s packs M7 motion-sensing chip, CoreMotion API for more accurate tracking

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/10/iphone-5s-m7-coremotion-motion-coprocessor/

Apple's new flagship iPhone 5s is about to have much more detailed information about how much its users are moving, thanks to a new M7 "Motion co-processor." Unveiled during today's live event, it works along with the new 64-bit A7 CPU to measure motion data continuously from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass without draining the battery as heavily. It looks like the iPhone 5s will be ready to take over for hardware extras like the FitBit or Nike Fuel wristband, but with a new CoreMotion API, devs for those companies and others can pull the information into their apps. The CoreMotion API specifically works to identify user movement, and offers "optimizations based on contextual awareness." Overall, it's very similar to what we'd heard would be in the Moto X, although we haven't seen all of these extra sensors used for activity tracking quite in this way. Nike was on hand with a new Nike+ Move app that used the M7 and GPS to track users' activities, and we wouldn't be surprised if others follow closely behind. Nike called the Move app an "introductory experience" to Nike Fuel in a tweet, so maybe it's planning to upsell customers on (potentially?) more detailed tracking with its hardware add-ons afterward.

Check out all the coverage at our iPhone 'Special Event' 2013 event hub!

Filed under: Mobile, Apple

Infinity Blade III to launch alongside iPhone 5s

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/10/infinity-blade-3-iphone-5s/

Donald Mustard, co-founder of Chair (owned by Epic Games), just hopped on stage at Apple's hardware reveal and pulled back the proverbial curtains on Infinity Blade III, the final installment in the series. The game's making use of the iPhone 5s' new 64-bit architecture, and it has the graphics prowess to prove it: combinations of rendering effects including depth of field, blur and full-screen vignettes. Not to mention lens flares "that would make J.J. Abrams proud." According to the developers, converting the game to 64-bit took just two hours, so developers with apps of their own need not fret. Infinity Blade III is slated to be "available alongside the new iPhone 5s," which should get a release date of its own in a few minutes.

Update: The iPhone 5s will be hitting shelves on September 20th, so Infinity Blade III should break into the App Store with it.

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Check out all the coverage at our iPhone 'Special Event' 2013 event hub!

Filed under: Gaming, Mobile

iPhone 5s fingerprint sensor called Touch ID, recognizes your thumb on the Home button: here's how it works and what it does

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/10/iphone-5s-fingerprint-sensor/

Apple's brand-new iPhone 5s isn't dramatically different from last year's model, but it has at least one major addition: a "Touch ID" sensor. Us human beings are calling it a fingerprint sensor, and it's built into the phone's main Home button below the screen. Apple's Phil Schiller says, "It reads your fingerprint at an entirely new level" -- it's 170 microns in thickness with 500 ppi resolution. According to Cupertino, it "scans sub-epidermal skin layers," and can read 360 degrees. As expected, the sensor is actually part of the Home button, making it less of a button and more of a...well, sensor. Using Touch ID, users can authorize purchases in iTunes, the App Store, or in iBooks by simply using their thumbprint (starting in iOS 7, of course). Pretty neat / scary!

As rumored, the sensor uses a laser cut sapphire crystal cover; it retains a tactile input for those wary of the sensor wearing down after lengthy use. The sapphire crystal, acting as a lens, takes a highly detailed image of your fingerprint, which Apple says is "never stored on Apple servers or backed up to iCloud." According to Apple's official PR on the new phone, Touch ID's fingerprint info is "encrypted and stored securely in the Secure Enclave inside the A7 chip" (the A7 chip is the new processor at the heart of the 5s). Apple hasn't made clear whether Touch ID allows for multiple users on a single iPhone or not, nor has the company said whether you could turn off fingerprint authentication (though we have to presume the answer is yes given previous authentication standards on the iPhone).

The fingerprint ID technology was long rumored as heading to 2013's iPhone following Apple's acquisition of Authentec last summer. A render of the iPhone 5s outed the new functionality's name just this week. We'll have more on Touch ID in our upcoming hands-on live from Cupertino, and you can find all our Apple event coverage from today right here.

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Check out all the coverage at our iPhone 'Special Event' 2013 event hub!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Software, Mobile, Apple

HP launches ZBook mobile workstations with Ultrabook model, 3,200 x 1,800 screen option

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/09/10/hp-zbook-mobile-workstations/

HP's 2012 mobile workstation range was powerful, but would we have called it exciting? Not exactly. The company may just liven things up with its new ZBook line, however. The three-laptop series is based on a thinner and lighter design template that includes a 14-inch Ultrabook variant, the ZBook 14 (pictured above). Basically, Dell's Precision M3800 now has a big-name competitor. Those willing to trade some portability for power will also get a few welcome additions. The mid-size ZBook 15 (after the break) has a 3,200 x 1,800 display option, while both the ZBook 15 and the flagship ZBook 17 carry Thunderbolt ports.

All three PCs ship with Haswell-based Intel processors as well as the latest pro graphics from either AMD or NVIDIA. Mobile workers can order the 15- and 17-inch ZBooks today, or wait for the 14-inch system's arrival in late October. You'll find more details of HP's workstation updates after the break, including a more conservative refresh to the Z desktop line that brings Ivy Bridge-based Xeon processors and Thunderbolt 2.

Filed under: Laptops, AMD, HP, NVIDIA

Source: HP (1), (2), (3)

The NFL Is Freaking Out Over Chip Kelly, The Eagles Coach Who Could Change Pro Football Forever

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chip-kelly-offense-could-change-nfl-forever-2013-9

chip kelly happy

If you watched the first half of Chip Kelly's first game as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles — a 33-27 win on the road against the Washington Redskins — you got a glimpse of what football will look like in the future.

The Eagles ran as many plays as possible, refusing to huddle-up and snapping the ball as fast as they could. They also used some zone read — which, for the uninitiated, is a type of play where the quarterback decides to either hand the ball off or run it himself based on what the defense is doing.

We've seen NFL teams (with Kelly's help) experiment with the no-huddle and zone read in recent years, largely as a "change of pace" supplement to their big, slow, normal offensive systems.

But Kelly's Eagles are the first pro team to use an entire offense that's built on those two experimental elements.

lesean mccoy eagles td Kelly's system is all "change of pace," and the NFL might never be the same if he continues to be as successful as he was last night.

We already saw him do it in college.

Kelly gained the reputation as one of the sport's foremost innovators when he was a coordinator at New Hampshire and then Oregon in the 2000s.

Oregon finished top 10 in the country in points scored in each of Kelly's four years as head coach, and transformed into one of college football's biggest powerhouse programs in the process. Oregon opened a preposterous $68-million football facility this year, and the unprecedented success that Kelly brought the school is a huge reason why.

With goof y formations, relentless fourth-down conversions, and (most importantly) a frantic hurry-up, fast-tempo offense that no one could stop, Kelly created the buzziest team in college sports. The rest of the country took notice, and now you see threads of Oregon's philosophy woven into the fabric of big-time college football.

In short, he helped turn college football into the points-fest you see today, and introduced a degree of creativity and innovation you rarely see in sports:

oregon punter kicker gif

Now, he's going to try and do the same thing in the NFL.

In just the first half against the Redskins, the Eagles ran 53 offensive plays. That's as many as five other NFL teams ran in all four quarters of their Week One games.

Philly gained 322 yards in the first half, more than 11 NFL teams gained in all four quarters of their Week One games.

chip kelly fist pump

The days of the typical NFL sequence — run a play, mosey back to the huddle, gather around the QB, walk back to the line of scrimmage — are numbered.

If Kelly succeeds, pro football will become a much more free-flowing game. Like basketball.

Some old-school football people see this as a bad thing. Alabama coach Nick Saban even said the up-tempo style that Kelly spread throughout college football is dangerous.

But that Eagles-Redskins game was thrilling. Kelly's addition to the NFL is a great thing for anyone who likes innovation in sports.

SEE ALSO: NFL Power Rankings! Week Two

SEE ALSO: This Chip Kelly Speech About Simplicity Is Fantastic

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