Urban Armor Gear Having A Sale, Up To 40% Off Through To New Years Eve
Urban Armor Gear (UAG) cases are a favourite here at AndroidSPIN; we’ve reviewed their cases before and I know several of us quite happily use them as our primary personal-use case. So when I heard that UAG were taking up to 40% off their cases for a sale to round out the year, I just had to tell you all. As stated in the poster above, you can save up to 40% on some of UAG cases and as far as I can see, if you have a slightly older phone like the Galaxy S3 or Note 2, you could be looking at some great discounts. Needless to say though, the other cases are equally great and if you’re thinking about getting one, I highly recommend it.
The deal has already gone live on their site, so if you do pick something up, make sure you get in before the new year; we’d love to hear which one you get. We’d also love to hear everyone else’s experiences with Urban Armor Gear.
Keyboards and mice connect to and control next-gen game consoles with XIM4 adapter (video)
Perhaps you’re a long-time PC gamer, but the massive marketing campaigns waged by Microsoft and Sony have had the desired effect, and you’ve taken the next-gen plunge. But in doing so, must you exchange your mad mouse and keyboard skills for the clumsy controls offered by DualShock and Xbox controllers? Nay! For a new XIM adapter is here to hook your PC peripherals to your Xbox One or PlayStation 4, providing you the precision PC control you’re accustomed to — and allow you to use your existing Bluetooth or USB headsets to work with those consoles too.
This newest XIM currently works with Xbox One, and you can see a video of a prototype device being used to play on Call of Duty: Ghosts after the break. Aside from bringing next-gen compatibility, XIM4 also has a companion app that lets you configure your controls wirelessly with your Android device running 2.3.3 and up — as opposed to the old adapters that required you to wire them up to a PC to do so. You see, for XIM’s tech to work, users must download a different profile for every game, as each title has its own control quirks — but as new games come out, the app prompts users automatically to download the latest profiles. The XIM4 won’t be released until next year, but a beta will be opening up soon to folks who own a XIM Edge (the previous-gen XIM that works with Xbox 360 and PS3), and work is ongoing to get it functioning with Sony’s DualShock 4. Stay tuned.
[Thanks, Nicolas]
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
Source: XIM3
Daily Roundup: 2013 Mac Pro review, Jack Dorsey joins Disney, Google powered robots and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Apple Mac Pro review (2013)
Apple’s latest workstation is a powerhouse. Armed with up to 7 teraflops of computing power, a super chill cooling system and beautiful new design, the 2013 Mac Pro is more than ready for the modern age. Click through for our review.
Canonical previews a dual-booting mobile future
Canonical is set to keep its promise and bring an Ubuntu/Android Dual-booting solution to mobiles sometime in 2014. Click on through for more info about the developer preview.
Jack Dorsey joins Disney board of directors
Today, Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey joined Disney’s board of directors. Click through for a quick look at how the social network’s inaugural user (@jack) wound up working for the mouse.
Google-powered machines lead DARPA’s Robotics Challenge (video)
SHAFT, the Google bot above, took first place at DARPA’s rescue-oriented competition this past weekend. Click through for more information about the event and Mountain View’s most recent robotic endeavors.
Filed under: Misc
Leak hints at Nokia-made Windows Phone with dual SIMs
Rumors surfaced just days ago of Nokia-built Windows Phone 8.1 devices for the developing world, and you may already be looking at one of them today… or rather, its home screen. Frequent tipster @evleaks has posted what’s reportedly a screenshot from the Moneypenny, the all-touch device from those earlier rumors. In addition to showing on-screen navigation keys, the image supports claims that the Moneypenny is the first dual-SIM Windows Phone — an important gesture toward markets like China and India, where multi-line support is a big selling point. There aren’t many other clues in picture, although the “6:30″ in the corner may allude to a Lumia 630 name. Whatever Nokia might call the handset, we wouldn’t expect it anytime soon; assuming the Moneypenny exists in the first place, we likely won’t hear anything official about it until Microsoft reveals Windows Phone 8.1.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia
Via: WPCentral
Source: @evleaks (Twitter)
UK pardons computing pioneer Alan Turing
Campaigners have spent years demanding that the UK exonerate computing legend Alan Turing, and they’re finally getting their wish. Queen Elizabeth II has just used her royal prerogative to pardon Turing, 61 years after an indecency conviction that many now see as unjust. The criminal charge shouldn’t overshadow Turing’s vital cryptoanalysis work during World War II, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said when explaining the move. The pardon is a purely symbolic gesture, but an important one all the same — it acknowledges that the conviction cut short the career of a man who defended his country, broke ground in artificial intelligence and formalized computing concepts like algorithms.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Slashdot
Source: Cryptome.org (PDF), The Independent
HP’s new tablets may be its way back into the smartphone world
HP has long vowed that it would revive its smartphone efforts, and it may be near that comeback — just not with the fanfare that some were hoping for. The Information claims that the company is weeks away from releasing a slew of phone-capable 6- and 7-inch Android tablets that would target developing markets, like China and India. They wouldn’t cost more than $250 off-contract, and they would reportedly be recycled designs from manufacturers like Pegatron and Quanta. While HP isn’t commenting on the rumor, it’s safe to say that major smartphone makers wouldn’t be losing sleep over the potential launch. The tipsters suggest that HP would instead be testing the waters — it would enter fast-growing mobile markets while it works on original hardware, corporate apps and carrier deals that would be necessary in more established areas.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Wireless, Mobile, HP
Edward Snowden looks back at NSA leaks, considers his personal mission accomplished
2013 is almost over, but revelations delivered this year about the amount of communications data the NSA has access to, and how it has acquired that data, will reverberate for much longer. The man at the center of the leaks, Edward Snowden, has spoken once again to The Washington Post about what he did and why, saying “For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished…I already won.” According to him, giving the public a chance to look over what the government agency had decided — behind the closed doors of Congress the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — is legal in order to track terrorists after 9-11, was the meaning behind his mission. Naturally, NSA leaders disagree and Snowden remains in Russia where he has been granted temporary asylum.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Washington Post
Tim Cook to Reportedly Visit Turkey in February for Opening of Istanbul Apple Store [Mac Blog]
Tim Cook will reportedly travel to Turkey next year for the opening of Apple’s first store in the country on February 4, reports emlakkulisi.com [Google Translate]. The store is located in the city of Istanbul at the new multi-use Zorlu Center and has undergone construction over the past few years, and was reported to open in the beginning of 2014.
According to report, Cook will also meet with Turkish President Abdullah Gül during his visit, with talks most likely centering around the $4.5 billion iPad education initiative that was discussed between Apple executives and the country’s president earlier this year. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also visited Apple in May as a part of the ongoing negotiations. In total, the program would reportedly provide 10.6 million tablets to Turkish schoolchildren.
Apple has been making a significant push into the Turkish market for quite some time, with having listed initial job postings for stores in the country last November. The company also launched the iTunes Store for music and movies in Turkey last year.
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NASA JPL creates a more immersive way to control a space robot with the Oculus Rift and the Kinect 2
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been on the hunt for a more natural way to maneuver robots in space for some time now, resulting in cool experiments like using a Leap Motion controller to remotely control a Mars rover and using an Oculus Rift plus a Virtuix Omni to take a virtual tour of the Red Planet. It therefore made sense for the folks at JPL to sign up for the latest Kinect for Windows developer program in order to get their hands on the newer and more precise Kinect 2 (which, incidentally, is not available as a standalone unit separate from the Xbox One) to see if it would offer yet another robotics solution.
They received their dev kit in late November, and after a few days of tinkering, were able to hook up an Oculus Rift with the Kinect 2 in order to manipulate an off-the-shelf robotic arm. According to our interview with a group of JPL engineers, the combination of the Oculus’s head-mounted display and the Kinect’s motion sensors has resulted in “the most immersive interface” JPL has built to date. Join us after the break to see a video of this in action and find out just why one of them has called this build nothing short of revolutionary.
JPL took part in the first Kinect developer program as well, so it was already intimately familiar with how Kinect’s motion sensor technology worked. It built a series of applications and eventually worked with Microsoft to release a game where you were tasked with landing Curiosity safely on Mars. The second Kinect, however, offers a lot more precision and accuracy than the first. “It allowed us to track open and closed states, and the rotation of the wrist,” says Human Interfaces Engineer Victor Luo. “With all of these new tracking points and rotational degrees of freedom, we were able to better manipulate the arm.”
Alex Menzies, also a Human Interfaces engineer, describes this combination of a head-mounted display and the Kinect motion sensor as nothing short of revolutionary. “We’re able for the first time, with [a] consumer-grade sensor, [to] control the entire orientation rotation of a robotic limb. Plus we’re able to really immerse someone in the environment so that it feels like an extension of your own body — you’re able to look at the scene from a human-like perspective with full stereo vision. All the visual input is properly mapped to where your limbs are in the real world.” This, he says, is very different from just watching yourself on a screen, because it’s very difficult to map your own body movements. “It feels very natural and immersive. I felt like you have a much better awareness of where objects are in the world.”
As you might imagine, latency is a very real concern, as most of the robots are on the other side of a long time delay. Jeff Norris, Mission Operations Innovation lead for JPL, says that therefore, a setup like this is mostly used to indicate goals, which the robots seek out. Luo and Menzies do point out, however, that as you see in the video, there’s a ghosted state to indicate where your arm is, and a solid color to show where the robot is currently, so the latency is displayed on the screen. “It feels pretty natural because the ghosted hand moves immediately, and you see that the robot is catching up to your position,” Menzies says. “You’re commanding it a little bit ahead, but it doesn’t feel laggy.”
“We’re building partnerships with commercial companies that make devices that maybe first and foremost weren’t built for space exploration,” says Luo. “Doing so helps us get a whole lot more done for space exploration than if we were starting everything from scratch. It also means we could build systems that could be available to the general public. Imagine how inspirational it would be for a 7-year-old to control a space robot with the tools he’s already familiar with!”
Of course, the end goal is not just to control a robot arm, but space robots in general. As can be seen in the video demonstration, JPL hopes to bring the same technology to machines like the Robonaut 2, which is currently deployed aboard the ISS. “We want to integrate this work to eventually extend that to controlling robots like the Robonaut 2,” Luo says. “There are tasks that are too boring, too menial or even too dangerous for an astronaut to do the task, but fundamentally we still want to be in control of the robot … If we can make it more efficient for us to control them, we can get more done in less time.”
Must See HDTV (December 23rd – 29th)
The last full week of 2013 is mostly filled with college football bowl games and holiday specials, but the streaming services have some treats. Netflix will premiere the first five episodes of Turbo F.A.S.T. this week, while Amazon continues its original series Betas and Alpha House. HBO’s Treme wraps up its run Sunday night with a 75-minute finale, but Doctor Who fans can unwrap two specials from BBC America on Christmas Day including The Time of the Doctor and a goodbye to Matt Smith. For gamers, this week’s highlight is a port, as Halo: Spartan Assault arrives for the Xbox One (the Xbox 360 version is due in January). Check after the break for our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and gaming.
Blu-ray & Games
- Insidious: Chapter 2
- Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (3D)
- Halo: Spartan Assault (Xbox One)
- Zen Pinball 2 (PS4)
Monday
- The Sing-Off (season finale), NBC, 8PM
- Falcons/49ers Monday Night Football, ESPN, 8:40PM
- WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
- The Great Christmas Light Fight (season finale), ABC, 9PM
- Major Crimes, TNT, 9PM
- Hollywood Game Night (season premiere), NBC, 10PM
Tuesday
- Turbo Fast (series premiere), Netflix
- Hawaii Bowl: Boise State/Oregon State, ESPN, 8PM
- Boston’s Finest, TNT, 9PM
- Marshal Law, TNT, 10PM
Wednesday
- Bulls/Nets, ESPN, 12PM
- Thunder/Knicks, ABC, 2:30PM
- Heat/Lakers, ABC, 5PM
- Doctor Who: Farewell to Matt Smith, BBC America, 8PM
- Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor, BBC America, 9PM
- Inside the NFL, Showtime, 9PM
- Clippers/Warriors, ESPN, 10:30PM
- NFL Turning Point, NBC Sports Network, 11PM
Thursday
- Pizza Bowl: Pittsburgh/Bowling Green, ESPN, 6PM
- Poinsettia Bowl: Utah State/Northern Illinois, ESPN, 9:30PM
- Grizzlies/Rockets, TNT, 8PM
- Clippers/Blazers, TNT, 10:30PM
Friday
- Betas, Amazon Prime Instant Video
- Alpha House, Amazon Prime Instant Video
- Military Bowl: Marshall/Maryland, ESPN, 2:30PM
- Texas Bowl: Syracuse/Minnesota, ESPN, 6PM
- $ellebrity, Showtime, 8PM
- WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM
- Nikita (series finale), CW, 9PM
- Fight Hunger Bowl: BYU/Washington, ESPN, 9:30PM
Saturday
- Pinstripe Bowl: Notre Dame/Rutgers, ESPN, 12PM
- Belk Bowl: Cincinnati/Noth Carolina, ESPN, 3:20PM
- Athletic Bowl: Louisville/Miami, ESPN, 6:45PM
- BW3 Bowl: Kansas State/Michigan, ESPN, 10:15PM
- WWE Tribute to the Troops, NBC, 8PM
- Atlantis, BBC America, 9PM
- 24/7: Red Wings/Maple Leafs Road to the NHL Winter Classic, HBO, 10PM
Sunday
- 60 Minutes, CBS, 7:30PM
- Eagles/Cowboys football, NBC, 8:20PM
- 36th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, CBS, 9PM
- Treme (series finale), HBO, 9PM
- Getting On (season finale), HBO, 10:15PM
- Ja’mie: Private School Girl (season finale), HBO, 10:30PM
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
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