Monday, October 28, 2013

Samsung's Galaxy Round ad compares its curved smartphone to avocados, Russian dolls (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/28/samsung-galaxy-round-ad-curved-smartphone-korea/

Samsung's Galaxy Round ad compares its curved smartphone to avocados, russian dolls video

Thanks to Samsung Korea's new (soon to be viral) Galaxy Round commercial, we've learned that its new smartphone is curved. Like many other objects. In the world. We get that now. It's also got differently-curved competition coming very soon. The whole 30-second showcase is after the break.

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Via: Phone Arena

Read More...

LG G Flex announced with vertically curved 6-inch 720p screen, 'self-repairing' back cover

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/27/lg-g-flex/

LG G Flex announced with verticallycurved 6inch 720p screen, 'selfrepairing' back cover

LG's unveiled all the details for its often-leaked, curved screen smartphone. Weighing in at 177g with a 6-inch (but 720p) curved OLED display, it's powered by a Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM, with a 13-megapixel camera housed above the two rear control buttons, which is now LG's thing. In comparison to Samsung's Galaxy Round, the screen on the G Flex arcs from top to bottom, not side-to-side, which at least makes a little more sense to us, hopefully fitting in better to the curvature of the users' face. We're yet to handle either curved phone IRL just yet, however, when we'll be able to offer up a better perspective on how both devices actually feel.

Like LG's recent G2, there's high-fidelity audio recording and playback, dual-window app functionality and tap-to-wake on that substantial touchscreen. There's also special animations, depending on where and how you unlock the phone. The Korean press release is also reporting that there's a self-healing coating that can repair hairline scratches on the rear of the phone. LG says they are repaired "within minutes." Korean smartphones with the power to control the elements are, however, still TBC. The G Flex will arrive on Korea's three major carriers next month -- but (again) there's no word on global roll-out, hinting that the smartphone could well be a test model for the company. We've added the confusingly Google-translated release after the break.

Update: We've now included the full English press release, below. %Gallery-slideshow102215%

Filed under: , ,

Comments

Via: The Verge

Source: Newswire, LG Newsroom

Read More...

Nielsen to add web viewers to future TV ratings, with a little help from Facebook

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/28/nielsen-mobile-digital-device-tv-ratings/

After several months of testing within the industry, Nielsen is finally ready to reveal its efforts to bake mobile viewing habits into its TV ratings system. In a wider roll-out of what the company already monitors, it'll launch an SDK for participating broadcasters in mid-November that will encompass both old-fashioned screens and those not-so-new upstarts (including DVRs, internet-connected TVs, tablets, smartphones and browsers). To work out which stream is being watched where, Nielsen will parse together "big data and a census-style measurement approach." This will apparently match demographic information through social networks, mentioning Facebook explicitly -- the ratings monitor is already involved with Twitter. It'll also know exactly which device viewers are watching content on thanks to "audio watermarks, metadata or tags associated with the content and related advertising." The aim, after all this work, is for Nielsen to accurately reveal who's watching TV ads and, concurrently, who's watching Scandal elsewhere.

Filed under: , , , , ,

Comments

Source: Nielsen

Read More...

AIRO wristband tracks not just sleep, exercise and stress, but also what you eat

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/28/airo-wristband/

AIRO wristband keeps track of your eating, stress, exercise and sleep for overall health

There are fitness wearables that track steps, gauge your quality of sleep and monitor your stress, but few combine all three. As for keeping track of what you eat, most people still resort to old-fashioned food diaries and calorie counters. The AIRO wristband, however, aims to measure all of the above completely automatically. Launching today, the AIRO uses a special embedded spectrometer to track not just your heart rate, but also your sleep patterns, workout intensity and calories consumed. It's even able to break down the nutritional intake of your food.

Abhilash Jayakumar, co-founder and CEO of Airo Heath, tells us it's able to do this because specific nutrients have different light properties. "As your body breaks the food down, the sensor can detect the amount of light that passes through the blood based on green, red and infrared patterns." So, for example, if you just ate a candybar, you'll see a spike in sugar intake reflected on an accompanying AIRO app. The wristband is able to parse the nutritional value of food into protein, fat and carbohydrates. Jayakumar tells us that the app is right now not quite sophisticated enough to tell the difference between simple starches and complex ones, but the team still has more experiments to do, so don't rule that out just yet.

"We might be able to see a difference in waveform, that would show you whether something is better or worse for the body." Further, Jayakumar notes that the AIRO's caloric intake measurement might differ from that on food packaging, because different people process foods differently.

Filed under:

Comments

Source: Airo

Read More...

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Alcatel's 7-inch OneTouch Pop tablets are colorful, and subject to leaks

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/27/alcatel-7-inch-onetouch-pop-tablet/

Alcatel's 7inch OneTouch Pop tablet could be the brightest leak this week

Way back in January this year, Alcatel trotted out some new tablets set for debut in Q3. Some we saw come to light in August. But, what's this we have here? Perpetual thorn in every product release's side -- @evleaks -- has just thrown up images of what are apparently new colorful 7-inch tabs from Alcatel. The difference here, to what we saw earlier, seems to be that they are part of the OneTouch Pop family, much like those recent budget handsets we saw -- which incidentally should start popping up in stores soon. As well as the hues you see above, we hear the covers are removable, and it will come in black, too. Plus there's word of a translucent flip-cover to keep it clean. Whenever it gets official that is.

Filed under:

Comments

Source: @evleaks

Read More...

Friday, October 25, 2013

India's biggest smartphone maker has designs on Europe with its 5-inch, full HD smartphone

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/25/micromax-canvas-touch-indian-smartphone-europe/

Image

You'd be forgiven for not knowing Micromax, but it's a name that might get a little more familiar in the future. The Indian smartphone manufacturer has hired Hugh Jackman to be its pitch person, and the first product you'll find him carrying is the surprisingly tasty-looking Canvas Turbo. The Turbo is a 5-inch aluminum-clad smartphone with a 1,920 x 1,080 display that's backed up by a 1.5GHz MediaTek chip and 2GB RAM. On the imaging front, there's a 13-megapixel camera and a 5-megapixel front-facer, while the whole thing is running Android 4.2.1. If there's a downside, it's that there's no microSD card slot to complement the 16GB of on-board storage, but the fact that it's retailing for 19,990 ($325) should soften the blow a little. This handset launches in India tomorrow, but the company will be trialling sales in Russia later in the year -- and if that's successful, you'll begin to see Micromax smartphones entering more markets in Europe throughout next year.

Filed under: ,

Comments

Via: Android Community

Source: Micromax

Read More...

Japan Display joins the Quad HD phone screen party with two new LCDs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/25/japan-display-joins-the-quad-hd-phone-screen-party/

Japan Display joins the Quad HD phone screen party with 54 and 62inch LCDs

LG clearly doesn't have a monopoly on Quad HD smartphone screens -- Japan Display has unveiled two low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) LCDs that offer the extra-sharp 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. The headlining 5.4-inch panel is ever so slightly denser than its Korean equivalent, at 543ppi; there's also a 6.2-inch (473ppi) model for giant devices. Both LCDs have "dead-bands" that are just 1mm thick, which should lead to extra-slim bezels on finished products. Japan Display hasn't said which companies will use the Quad HD screens, but it's easy to see one of the joint venture's partners (Hitachi, Sony or Toshiba) calling first dibs.

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Via: Talk Android

Source: Japan Display

Read More...

Thursday, October 24, 2013

AMD's flagship Radeon R9 290X graphics card now available for $549

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/24/amd-radeon-r9-290x-available/

AMD Radeon R9 290X

AMD's range-topping Radeon R9 290X has been (officially) shrouded in mystery since its unveiling last month, but the company is at last revealing full details and releasing the graphics card to stores. As you'd expect given its $549 price, the flagship is a big leap in performance over the $299 R9 280X: it carries 2,816 stream processors, a wider 512-bit memory bus and a larger 4GB of video RAM. The board can muster 5.6TFLOPs of general computing power, AMD says, and is built with 4K graphics in mind. More importantly, it's also delivering a lot of bang for the buck. Early reviews at sites like AnandTech and Tom's Hardware show the R9 290X outperforming the more expensive GeForce GTX 780; as long as you can tolerate the noisier cooling, it may be a good fit for your gaming PC.

Filed under: , , ,

Comments

Source: AMD

Read More...

This Pumpkin Tap Turns Your Halloween Gourd Into an Edible Keg

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-pumpkin-tap-turns-your-halloween-gourd-into-an-edi-1450804051

This Pumpkin Tap Turns Your Halloween Gourd Into an Edible Keg

Make Martha Boowart proud—while giving your Monster Mash an added seasonal flair—by converting that pre-op Jack-o-Lantern into something far more useful than a carriage: a Keg. The Pumpkin Tap will turn any pumpkin or squash—even watermelon—into an impromptu beverage server.

Simply open the top of the gourd, scoop out the seeds, and shove the shank in at the pumpkin's base. Then just screw the tap mechanism onto the shank and refill the cavity with your preferred beverage. I suggest three liters of Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, but any number of other witches brews will work. The Pumpkin Tap retails for $32. [Kegworks]

This Pumpkin Tap Turns Your Halloween Gourd Into an Edible Keg

Read more...

Read More...

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Fujifilm XQ1 Hands-On: A Canon Clone With Better Guts

Source: http://gizmodo.com/fujifilm-xq1-hands-on-a-canon-clone-with-better-guts-1451069096

Fujifilm XQ1 Hands-On: A Canon Clone With Better Guts

Maybe it's no surprise that when Fujifilm's first advanced pocket camera fell flat, they turned to proven designs for the basis of it's second try. I just played with Fuji's new XQ1, and I could believe It wasn't a Canon S120. But just because it's familiar on the outside, doesn't mean it's got the same stuff inside.

Read more...

Read More...

A Handheld Gaming Console You Can Build and Program Yourself

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-handheld-gaming-console-you-can-build-and-program-you-1449365483

A Handheld Gaming Console You Can Build and Program Yourself

It's about as far from a Nintendo 3DS or PS Vita as you can get when it comes to the latest in handheld gaming consoles, but the DIY Gamer Kit from Technology Will Save Us comes with one features those devices don't: The satisfaction that you built it yourself. And not only do you have to assemble, wire, and solder the DIY Gamer Kit yourself, you'll also need to program your own games too. Sound like fun?

Read more...

Read More...

Article: Bromium Raises $40M For Security Technology That Traps Malware And Limits Attacks | TechCrunch

Bromium has raised $40 million for its micro virtual machine (micro-vm) technology that traps malware and analyzes it for IT administrators to examine once an attack takes place. The oversubscribed Series C funding round was led by new investor Meritech Capital Partners, with participation from e...

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/23/bromium-raises-40m-for-security-technology-that-traps-malware-and-limits-attacks/

Sent via Flipboard

Read More...

A Headphone Jack Laser Pointer That No One Will Be Able To Spot

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-headphone-jack-laser-pointer-that-no-one-will-be-able-1450204782

A Headphone Jack Laser Pointer That No One Will Be Able To Spot

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise; highlighting a character's crotch on-screen at the movies is hi-larious, and always will be. But getting caught with a laser pointer in your hand and tossed out of the theater isn't. So thankfully red lasers have been around for decades, and have been miniaturized to the point where they can hide inside your smartphone's headphone jack.

Read more...

Read More...

Add Your Own Wireless Capability To Your DSLR, And Save On Said DSLR

Source: http://gizmodo.com/add-your-own-wireless-capability-to-your-dslr-and-save-1450197939

Add Your Own Wireless Capability To Your DSLR, And Save On Said DSLR

Camera makers have been extremely stubborn about adding Wifi to their DSLR's, but you add your own wireless capability to your photo rig with the Toshiba Flash Air 8GB SD Memory Card. It's about as elegant as a third-party solution to a first-party problem gets, and it's cheap. I always keep one in my memory card arsenal for when the need arises. $26. [eBay]

Read more...

Read More...

Step Aside, Street Lamps: These Ordinary Paths Glow On Their Own

Source: http://gizmodo.com/step-aside-street-lamps-these-ordinary-streets-glow-o-1449711937

Step Aside, Street Lamps: These Ordinary Paths Glow On Their Own

Charging off-grid street lamps with solar power is a positive step towards reducing energy consumption. But what if our sun-baked public walkways also glowed in the dark?

Read more...

Read More...