Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

drag2share: Google Has One Killer Advantage When It Comes To Smartwatches

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-now-for-android-wear-2014-3

google android wear smartwatch

Google unveiled Android Wear today, a lightweight version of Android that manufacturers can use to power smartwatches and other wearable gizmos.

None of the manufacturers listed as Android Wear partners (Samsung, Fossil, LG, HTC, Motorola, and a few others) have a device ready right now, but we should start seeing them go on sale in the coming months.

In the meantime, Google gave us a really good look at what the Android Wear operating system will be able to do. Specifically, it seems to rely heavily on Google Now, the digital assistant that comes with Android phones and as a separate app for the iPhone.

In short, Google Now blows Siri out of the water. And it has the potential to be even more useful on wearable devices that are designed to contextualize your notifications and display what's most relevant to you at any given time.

If you're unfamiliar with Google Now, it works by pulling in data from all your Google services like Gmail, Calendar, Maps, searches, etc. and figures out on its own what to show you.

For example, if you have a meeting scheduled in your Google Calendar, Google Now can automatically alert you when to leave so you can make it on time. It even takes traffic delays into account. It can also scan your Gmail inbox for upcoming flight notifications and UPS/FedEx package shipments.

That's barely scratching the surface of what Google Now can do, but just know it's an incredibly powerful tool for synthesizing all your digital information. Plus, Google keeps layering new features on top of Google Now, so it gets better the more you use it.

And that's what makes Google Now the killer feature for smartwatches. It doesn't make sense to have users swipe around to find what they want on a smartwatch. The real challenge is to create a product that just knows what you want to see based on where you are and what you're doing. And if you really do need to look s! omething up, Google Now is equipped with excellent voice search that can bring you the one answer you're looking for, not a list of search results like Siri often does.

It raises an interesting question: If and when Apple releases a smartwatch, would you rather have a device powered by Siri or Google Now?

Join the conversation about this story »

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: A Touchscreen 'Smart'watch That Doesn't Need a Phone

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-touchscreen-smart-watch-that-doesnt-need-a-phone-1545697017

A Touchscreen 'Smart'watch That Doesn't Need a Phone

In a time when every company seems to be announcing a smartwatch, Phosphor has taken a slightly different approach with its Touch Time. It runs a small suite of apps, accessible on the watch's monochrome touchscreen LCD display, but what it comes with is all it will ever have. There's no wireless connectivity to a smartphone, no USB port for firmware updates, and no way to upgrade it whatsoever—save for shipping it back to the factory.

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: vrAse turns your smartphone into a VR headset (hands-on)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/18/vrase-hands-on/

We'll admit it, when we first laid eyes on vrAse -- a smartphone case that gives your handset Oculus Rift-like functionality -- we were a bit... curious? The ambitious/ingenious project was launched on Kickstarter at the end of last year, and while it didn't get quite the huge sum that Oculus did, it captured enough imaginations to secure the money it needed. How does it work? An optimized app splits its output into two -- side by side. You then slide the phone into the headset/case which has a lens feeding into each eye, creating a large, 3D image. The hardware we saw was just a prototype, but final designs should be ready by summer. We also got to try it on!

In effect, the vrAse is creative use of existing hardware (your phone) and existing software techniques, with some barebones hardware that brings the it all together (the case). The first benefit of this approach is the cost, the vrAse (think VR, case) will retail for around $100 once it fully launches later this year. Another benefit is that by offloading the heavy lifting to your phone, the brains of the operation is effectively endlessly upgradeable. Update your phone, you have a new engine in the machine. Other perks of this method mean you can also benefit from other features that come with a phone such as the camera or microphone.

In our quick demo with the vrAse, we we shown a demo that sits you in a roller coaster. The phone being used was a Galaxy Note, so one with a larger screen, but we were surprised by how immersive the experience was. As we rode around the virtual landscape, we genuinely felt the urge to lean left and right along with it -- and the anticipation of a loop the loop was very real! Another demo we were shown used the phone's camera -- so that we could actually see the real world -- but the software placed virtual furniture in the room that we could walk around and even change the color of with a voice command to the phone. Apps aren't limited to working with the hardware either, games, for example, can have an optional 2D mode for when you just want to play on the phone directly.

The experience is perhaps not as fully immersive/slick feeling as the Oculus Rift due to the inherent compromises that come with an open hardware platform, and decentralized software (it's, of course, open to iOS, Android, Windows Phone and beyond). This should improve, however, once the final hardware is comes to market, and the goal posts become a little more fixed. We were shown how the retail unit will look, but were unable to take photos. As you can imagine, it's somewhat more attractive than the prototype we saw, and very much in keeping with similar headsets we've seen of late.

Filed under: Gaming, Wearables, Mobile

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

Article: Cube robot demonstrates incredible balance

Cubli is a cube-shaped robot that can jump up, balance on a single corner and "walk" itself across a desk, all using off-the-shelf parts. Some robots do something useful, like ordnance disposal. Some robots do something artistic, like music. Some are more interactive. And some robots are just dan...

http://www.cnet.com.au/cube-robot-demonstrates-incredible-balance-339346873.htm?feed=rss

Sent via Flipboard

Article: USB2Go Is A Smartphone-Powered Micro USB Dev Board For Building Android Connected Gadgets

Android developers wanting a quicker and easier way to hack around with hardware should point their eyes at this Kickstarter project – called USB2Go — which is aiming to repurpose the micro USB port of your smartphone as a portal for plugging in an ARM Cortex-M3 development board. The board would...

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/17/usb2go/?ncid=rss

Sent via Flipboard

Article: Three Data Driven Nuggets From Nate Silver's New News Site

Nate Silver, the famous New York Times statistics blogger who correctly forecasted 50 out of 50 states in the 2012 presidential election, has launched an entire news site dedicated to data journalism. Keeping the old blog name, 538, the relaunched site is dedicated to taking what Silver thinks is...

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/17/three-data-driven-nuggets-from-nate-silvers-new-news-site/?ncid=rss

Sent via Flipboard

Article: LittleBits Announces The Cloud Module, An Electronics Block That Connects Your Projects To The Internet

LitteBits, maker of simple, easy to build electronics kits, has announced what they’re calling the Cloud Module, a small, Internet-connected block that lets you build standalone projects using the kit’s Lego-style connection system. The kits themselves are marketed as toys and, in a large part, t...

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/18/littlebits-announces-the-cloud-module-an-electronics-block-that-connects-your-projects-to-the-internet/?ncid=rss

Sent via Flipboard

Article: Nikon's mirrorless snapper fires 60 shots a second

A good thing has happened in the world of cameras recently. The megapixel wars are all but dead. Instead, much of the focus in recent cameras has shifted to speed: Faster autofocus systems, and faster continuous-shooting speeds. The combination of those two things -- fast shot-to-shot times and t...

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/18/nikon-1-v3-mirrorless

Sent via Flipboard

Article: If Microsoft doesn't loosen up, Firefox won't be the last to abandon it

In an announcement last Friday, Mozilla’s Vice President, Johnathan Nightingale, announced that he had pulled the plug on the Windows version of his company’s popular Firefox web browser, citing evidence that nobody is using that version of the product. Mozilla’s withdrawal is yet another vote of...

http://qz.com/188794/if-microsoft-doesnt-loosen-up-firefox-wont-be-the-last-to-abandon-it/

Sent via Flipboard

drag2share: Facebook needs testers for new Messenger features on Android

source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/18/facebook-messenger-android-open-beta/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

Apparently Facebook's found the silver bullet for developing its Android apps: crowdsourcing bug testers. In an effort to make Messenger more stable for everyone, Zuckerberg and Co. are asking adventurous Google fans to help work out the application's kinks before new features are released to the general public. The process essentially mirrors what we saw with the open beta for its main app last year. Just sign up for the related Google Group, tick the "become a tester" box in the Play store, download the app, turn on automatic updates and voila you're getting early access to new features. Should a glitch pop up, Facebook asks that you report it with the in-app dialog box. Simple enough, right? Naturally, as is often the case with beta tests, those new bells and whistles might make the app a touch less stable than you're used to.

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: LG's G Pro 2 starts rolling out across Asia

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/18/lg-g-pro-2-asia/

If you love your screens large but hate the bezel, LG's G Pro 2 smartphone has arrived to Asia, replete with a 5.9-inch, IPS 1080p display and meager 3.3mm side frames. It also sports cutting-edge niceties like 4K video recording and the drum-to-unlock Knock Code, along with a 13-megapixel camera, Snapdragon 800 chip and 3GB of RAM. It'll hit Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam in the coming days, with North America and Europe to follow at an unspecified date. There's still no word on pricing, but given those specs, it's not the budget phone you've been looking for.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG

Source: LG

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

Monday, March 17, 2014

drag2share: This Sneaky Trash Can Lid Lures Flies to Their Death

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-sneaky-trash-can-lid-lures-flies-to-their-death-1545492426

This Sneaky Trash Can Lid Lures Flies to Their Death

Just like Romeo and Juliet, flies are tragically destined to crave their one true love: Pungent, moldy, rotten garbage. And thanks to this ingenious trash can design that traps flies only to have them starve, the flies' love can prove just as fatal as Shakespeare's.

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Is Using Drones At Sports Events Actually A Crime? Should It Be?

Source: http://regressing.deadspin.com/is-using-drones-sports-events-actually-a-crime-should-1545673649/@ericlimer

Is Using Drones At Sports Events Actually A Crime? Should It Be?

Last month, the Nationals were seen using a four-rotor drone to take publicity photos. The FAA took issue. "No, we didn't get it cleared, but we don't get our pop flies cleared either and those go higher than this thing did," a team official told the AP afterward. Which pretty neatly sums up the FAA's conundrum with regulating drones in the wild.

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Poke Out Parts of This Perforated Lamp Shade To Make Your Own Pattern

Source: http://gizmodo.com/poke-out-parts-of-this-perforated-lamp-shade-to-make-yo-1544099587

Poke Out Parts of This Perforated Lamp Shade To Make Your Own Pattern

This Take-Off light shade comes in a single perforated sheet, and you poke out the teensy shapes to make whatever the heck pattern you want. It's like the design equivalent of popping bubble wrap—everyone likes popping bubble wrap!—except you've got to be pretty precise. Once false move and you've got a wackadoo motif to live with… forever.

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: This Digital Sundial Tracks the Sun Through a Laser-Cut Cube

Source: http://gizmodo.com/this-digital-sundial-tracks-the-sun-through-a-laser-cut-1545753402

This Digital Sundial Tracks the Sun Through a Laser-Cut Cube

Sure, sundials are totally impractical in the age of precise atomic clocks, but this digital sundial cube is still the coolest. Made out of 59 plates of metal cut to match the angle of the sun at different times of the day, the Sun Cube casts a dot-matrix number to mark each hour.

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)