There are a number of startups that are seeking to make our financial lives better, whether it be Simple helping users to set budgets and goals or BillGuard to make them aware of fraudulent charges that show up on their credit cards. Then there's Coin, which wants to create a sort of "one card to...
http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/02/coin-video-demo/
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Perhaps the best way to regard Acer's growing range of Android "all-in-ones" is not as PC replacements, or even as giant tablets, but rather as touch-sensitive monitors that have the added benefit of being able to run their own OS. That certainly applies to the latest model, the TA272 HUL, whose ...
http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/03/acer-ta272hul-monitor-android-all-in-one/?ncid=rss_truncated
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Acer has unveiled several new Android-based devices that will be on display at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In particular, the company announced the debut of two new tablets. The Iconia A1-830 is a 7.9-inch tablet available for $179.99 in the US and $199.99 in Canada, while...
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While Google works on bringing its polished Glass device to market, wearable startup Innovega is taking head-mounted displays a step further: contact lenses that interact with full HD glasses. Anyone who has ever dreamt up a sci-fi future in which neon interfaces float in front of us and informat...
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Source: http://gizmodo.com/lgs-giant-curved-4k-oled-tvs-will-explode-your-mind-1492217684
Having already divulged its 105-inch LCD UltraHD television
Source: http://gizmodo.com/3d-printed-syphon-makes-sharing-drinks-impossibly-easy-1491689174
Anyone who's ever emptied a pool or stolen gas from a car's tank knows how a siphon works, but that doesn't make this 3D printed Wave toy seem any less magical. Seeing it in action you'd assume there was some kind of sorcery involved here, as one side of the Wave draws liquid to the other until both glasses have the exact same amount of liquid. But it's just well-known scientific principles at work.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/02/polaroid-tv/
Polaroid's been struggling with a bit of an identity crisis since the halcyon days of instant photography. Did you know, for example, that the company's been putting its name on TVs? Polaroid's celebrating CES with the release of two ambitious (if not particularly memorably named) sets at extremely low price point. The more notable of the two is a 50-inch 4K set with three HDMI inputs, priced at $1,000. Can't quite swing that? Good news, a mere $600 will get you a 50-inch set with a Roku Streaming Stick built-in -- and that one's got HDMI inputs, as well. Both sets will be on-hand in Vegas next week.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/02/lg-webos-smart-tv-leak/
LG's rumored webOS Smart TV is tipped to arrive at CES in the coming days, but that hasn't stopped intrepid leaker @evleaks from giving us what could be an early preview of its next connected set. In what appears to be a significant departure from the smartphone-like UI utilized in its current Smart TVs, the leaked render shows off LG's modern interpretation of the Cards interface we first saw in Palm's webOS-powered smartphones and tablets. LG chiefs have already indicated that the company has thrown its weight behind the Enyo open-source JavaScript development framework, which it acquired from HP as part of the webOS project, in the hope it will encourage third parties to create apps and services for its next-gen TVs. If the leaked image is real, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Skype apps will likely be available at launch, but we're set to find out for sure when CES 2014 commences next week.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Software, HD, LG
Source: Evleaks (Twitter)
Though it may look fake and unreal and impossible and not allowed on Earth, the camera stabilizer in the video is completely real. You can't make it shake. It's like magic decided to defy physics and ignore gravity. All I want to do is park myself in front of a mirror and do as many twists and turns and spins as possible to see if I can get the camera off track. Like this guy.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/31/lg-lifeband-touch-leak/
We love it when a leak and a rumor come together. LG's Lifeband Touch (as claimed by @evleaks), pictured above, is most likely the wearable that was hinted at just last week. The fitness band is likely an evolution of that which we saw back at CES, and at a guess, we might see again in the next week or so (unless we're made to wait until MWC). The name -- and image -- suggest a touchscreen component making this a swipe-friendly FuelBand competitor. Whether it'll be an LG G2 companion (as rumored) or a standalone device is yet to be known (we're hoping maybe a bit of both). Unless LG has had a change of heart, it's also likely to include an altimeter, some mobile notification features and play nice with the firm's Smart TV fitness/dance apps. What certainly is clear, however, is that there's going to be even more competition for your wrist in 2014.
Source: @evleaks
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/31/qualcomm-snapdragon-805/
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 chip is still pretty dang new, but the company's already churned out a follow-up: the Snapdragon 805, a so-called Ultra HD processor. Like the 800, this version is a Krait-based, quad-core chip, and its biggest selling point is support for 4K video playback on your mobile devices as well as your smart TV. The 805 also includes an Adreno 420 GPU, which Qualcomm says offers 40 percent more graphics power. Of course, this is the sort of tech that you really need to see to believe. Luckily, a recent trip to San Diego gave us a chance to stop by Qualcomm's HQ and check out the latest Snapdragon demos. Head past the break for a look at the chip's graphics and video chops.
All four demos utilized the Snapdragon 805 Development Platform, an Android tablet with a 2,560 x 1,440 display, dual cameras with 3D sensors and surround-sound speakers. While devices packing the 805 chip won't debut until late 2014, these setups tease some of the visual improvements you can expect.
With the 805, Qualcomm is commercializing several software algorithms that allow for advanced photo-editing tools no matter what smartphone you're using (as long as it packs this Snapdragon chip, that is). For example, an app called UbiFocus let us change what parts of an image were in focus à la the Lytro camera. It worked well, and thanks to the 805's processing oomph, there wasn't noticeable delay on-screen. Other programs include Optizoom, which sharpens a particular area (such as text) of a photo, and Chromaflash, which fuses flash and natural-light versions of a photo for an enhanced picture.
One of the coolest demos on hand showed off the 805's Adreno 420 GPU. When hooked up to an external monitor, the Development Platform was capable of streaming eight different feeds of 3D video to the display, allowing for an ideal viewing experience no matter where we stood in front of the setup. Multi-view 3D is one of the Snapdragon 805's most significant advantages -- at least in terms of graphics -- over the 800, which can't pull it off with its Adreno 330 GPU.
Qualcomm added hardware tessellation to the Adreno 420 GPU, which makes for a marked improvement over the Adreno 330 in terms of visuals. Essentially, the GPU supports additional geometry (i.e., graphics details) without stressing the CPU's processing power and memory. It's the kind of GPU heavy lifting that's been doable on consoles and high-end PCs previously, but not on a tablet. A comparison between the Adreno 330 and 420's rendering of an insect moving around makes it clear just how much better the latter performs.
Thanks to hardware 4K HEVC (high efficiency video coding), the Snapdragon 805 can decode and stream high-quality video without using much power. And we really mean high quality; just check out the clip above, which should give you a decent idea about the level of detail you can expect on mobile platforms and TVs alike. The processor also packs improved Dolby Audio, including vertical surround sound, but that experience doesn't transfer as well to a video hands-on.
Zach Honig contributed to this report.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, HD
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/29/samsung-110-inch-uhd-tv/
Samsung promised at CES in January that it would deliver a 110-inch UHDTV this year to dwarf its already-gargantuan 85-inch model and with just a couple of days left to spare here it is. Apparently rolling out in China, the Middle East and a few European countries first, there's no word on price (the 85-inch had a $40K pricetag attached when it launched), but can you really put a price on a TV that's bigger than a king-size bed? That's right, at 2.6-meters by 1.8-meters there's more than enough room for well-heeled VIPs or employees of large companies and government agencies (the target market for the S9110) to catch some z's on it -- and bring a few friends. It's available for custom orders just before we see the new generation of Ultra HD (including a 105-inch curved model) at CES 2014 next week, although most of us will be looking for TVs that actually fit inside our living room.
Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung
Source: Samsung (Korea)
Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-gorgeous-stained-glass-landscape-is-actually-a-ric-1489967519
Who knew growing rice on a mountain could be so beautiful? The Ailao Mountains in Yunnan, China, have been carved into thousands of gradual steps, each a paddy growing red rice. The rice terraces stretch out over some 400 square miles of mountains and valleys.
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/26/tegra-note-update/
A few things were missing from NVIDIA's Tegra Note 7 when it launched a month and a half ago, but the company promised that users would get a timely update that filled in some of the holes. That refresh, which includes Android 4.3 and a handful of other enhancements, is coming out to the $200 Tegra 4-powered tablet today. One of the biggest features that should've been offered from the very beginning is Always-on HDR (AOHDR), which does exactly what the feature's name implies -- make sure users can snap a real-time HDR shot without waiting several seconds for the camera to process it. There are a few other nice touches in the changelog, such as left-handed stylus support, improvements in the DirectStylus' response, notifications and the ability to transfer files to microSD from internal memory. Granted, this isn't the latest version of Android (4.4), but NVIDIA is planning on bringing it to the Note 7 eventually. In the meantime, at least users can enjoy the current update as it begins rolling out today around the world, regardless of which market you live in.
Source: NVIDIA
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/26/tcl-idol-x-plus-2ghz-octa-core-activity-wristband/
While some of us are still recovering from holiday, the TCL folks in China -- whose products are better known under the Alcatel brand in many other countries -- have gone ahead and launched a new phone. As the name suggests, the Idol X+ is pretty much an updated version of the already impressive Idol X, with the highlight being it's the first device to carry the 2GHz bin of the octa-core MT6592 SoC (with 2GB RAM). TCL's reps told us that this is courtesy of an exclusive deal they arranged with MediaTek. Additionally, you'll find a familiar 5-inch 1080p IPS display within a slimmer 1.9mm bezel, plus a 13-megapixel f/2.0 camera on the back. Due to the larger 2,500mAh battery, the body is now slightly thicker at 7.9mm, but it's actually not that much different when we saw a prototype earlier.
For a flagship Android phone that costs just CN¥1,999 or about US$330 unsubsidized, it's pretty bold of TCL to also include a Bluetooth activity plus sleep tracker. This Boom Band is essentially a little nugget that sits inside a plastic wristband (available in several colors), and it can double as a proximity alarm in case you accidentally leave your phone behind. It naturally has a companion app that lets you track your performance, and should you wish to, you can also show off your stats to friends.
There's no word on whether non-China markets will get the same package branded by Alcatel, but if you already reside in China, you can head to JD.com and order one on January 15th.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Via: Engadget China
Source: TCL (Sina Weibo)
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