Razer delays Nabu wearable launch to avoid Fitbit-like skin complaints
Razer’s Nabu wearable won’t launch until late May or early June, according to various developers who’ve received an email regarding the delay. The “smart band,” which took home our People’s Choice Award at CES this year, was originally supposed to be available by the end of March. According to said email, Razer’s in council with “medical professionals” and running “stringent tests to ensure Nabu is fully certified hypoallergenic” before it reaches consumers. This is obviously a reaction to Fitbit’s recent problems with its Force fitness tracker, which had to be recalled after thousands of reports of rashes and other skin troubles by its users. Whether Razer’s just trying to make the best product possible or simply wants to avoid a PR disaster is irrelevant, we guess, as long as wrists are safe. It begs the question, though: shouldn’t such tests have been factored into wearable development as part of reasonable due diligence, rather than just an afterthought?
[Thanks, irawrr!]
Filed under: Gaming, Wearables
Source: @udezekene (Twitter), Sonicspin2
Family Guy The Quest for Stuff is Family Guy’s answer to The Simpsons Tapped Out
The Simpsons Tapped Out turned out to be quite a hit, offering fresh comedic material and keeping the game constantly updated proved to be beneficial and enjoyable to its 5+ million players. The other most popular comedy show featuring a dysfunctional family, Family Guy, has jumped on the video game bandwagon and is releasing its own freemium game, Family Guy The Quest for Stuff. If you want an idea of what the game is about, check out the release trailer below:
Yes, Peter Griffin is yet again fighting the chicken, destroying the city of Quahog in the process. Sound familiar? That’s probably because that’s almost the exact same premise as The Simpsons Tapped Out, but who’s keeping score anyway? With the city in ruins, it will be your job to rebuild and protect the city from various invasions. From the looks of it, the game contains a whole lot of unique animations and jokes not seen before on the show and also include a whole number of ridiculous costumes to customize your characters with.
And of course, the game is free to download which means there will be lots of not-so-subtle attempts to separate you with your real world money. Nobody’s making you though, of course. If you’re interested in check out Family Guy The Quest for Stuff, the Play Store link can be found below. Let us know how you find it if you pick it up.
Source: Android Police
Game: Family Guy The Quest for Stuff
Price: Free
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Pocket 5.4 introduces immersive reading
Pocket is introducing a new update, especially useful for those running KitKat, to have “Immersive Reading”, which allows whatever article or video you are reading to go full screen.
A little background on Pocket, it is a neat app that allows you to save articles or videos for later reading across multiple devices. This comes in handy when your internet is unavailable and your wanting to catch up on whatever you put in your Pocket!
Source: Pocket
The post Pocket 5.4 introduces immersive reading appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Formula E’s first public tests to begin in the UK on July 4th
After it completed its successful test debut at France’s La Ferté Gaucher circuit late last year, the Spark-Renault SRT_01E Formula E car now has a place to call home: the UK’s Donington Park. Organizers of the Formula E Championship, the world’s first fully electric race series, have confirmed that the first official team tests will be hosted at the circuit, which will also serve as home for all 10 of the race crews during its inaugural season. The first public tests will be spaced intermittently between July 4th and August 19th, three weeks before the series kicks off in Beijing on September 13th. They’ll be truly public too, allowing fans to attend completely free of charge. Donington’s state-of-the-art facility is set to open in early May with the first car deliveries arriving a few weeks later. Once teams get their hands on the 200kw (270bhp) single-seaters, it’ll only be a couple of months until all of the cars run together for the first time.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: FIA Formula E
Where to buy Samsung’s Galaxy S5
As some of you will probably know, today marks the global launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and wearable Gear range. And, as is the case with nearly all flagship phones, everyone wants a piece of the action. The GS5 is no different, so with high demand expected, it’s up to mobile networks and retailers to make sure your new handset goes through their checkout. There’s a ton of different talk, text and data allowance combinations available, but what better metric to start at than price? Head past the break for a table outlining where you can hunt down a GS5, and at what cost — one spreadsheet you hopefully won’t mind looking at on a Friday.
| Three | O2 | EE | Carphone Warehouse | Phones 4U | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest contract (with upfront) | £38 (£29) | £13 (£650) | £14 (£430) | £47 (£19) | £34 (£169) | £28 (£129) | £29 (£199) |
| Cheapest contract (no upfront) | – | £43 | – | £52 | £47 | £42 | £42 |
| Pay-as-you-go | £549 | “Coming soon” | £500 | – | – | – | £560 |
| Unlocked (SIM-free) | – | – | – | – | – | £570 | £570 |
It’s not just the main mobile players that have the GS5 on offer, by the way, as MVNO’s Virgin Mobile, Tesco Mobile, giffgaff and the like are in on the action, too. And, what’s with O2 trying to charge a £650 upfront for a phone that’s £570 unlocked at most vendors, with online retailers like Expansys, Unlocked Mobiles and Clove charging as little as £522 (when stock arrives, that is)? The S5 is available through Samsung’s own stores at £570, too, with the Gear 2 on offer for £300, and Neo or Fit for £170.
Filed under: Cellphones, Samsung
Sony warns users that its VAIO Fit risks catching fire
As Sony prepares to get out of the PC business, reports of a battery defect in one of its new notebooks will do little to preserve a happy memory of its legacy. The Wall Street Journal reports that an issue with Sony’s VAIO Fit 11A could cause the laptop to overheat and catch fire, so the company’s asking owners to stop using the hybrid PC immediately. Sony’s already sold 25,905 units in total, with the majority shipping to Europe, but has not yet issued an official recall for the device. That is the expected outcome, however, leaving the struggling electronics giant with another major headache just as it completes the sale of its VAIO arm to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP).
Filed under: Sony
Source: Wall Street Journal
Oppo’s bringing another LTE phone to the US (and it might just be affordable)
Oppo has a reputation for clever smartphones, but there’s a good reason why you rarely see its devices in the US: it hasn’t had local LTE data until the (currently unreleased) Find 7, and that’s not exactly cheap. Imagine our surprise when we found a version of the R1 with US-capable LTE, fresh from FCC approval. The high-style, low-cost phone can now handle 4G data on T-Mobile and, to a limited extent, AT&T. It should also run quickly on Canadian providers.
Don’t expect an official carrier deal when this variant arrives, though.
Given the lack of network branding, it’s more likely to be sold in unlocked form to fans of the R1′s looks and extra-bright f/2.0 aperture camera. Oppo hasn’t said anything about this model, so it’s not even clear that you’ll get to buy one any time soon. Still, it’s a further sign that the company is taking its North American audience seriously — and it may save you some cash if you don’t need everything the Find 7 has to offer.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: FCC
Chrome beta for Android makes it easy to send web video to Chromecast
You no longer have to engage in some hidden setting gymnastics just to send web videos from Chrome for Android to your Chromecast. Google has rolled out a Chrome 35 beta that lets you deliver “some” clips from the browser to a Chromecast-equipped TV. The company hasn’t said just which videos are compatible, but it notes that YouTube support is rough around the edges. Even if your favorite media site is broken, you can check out a few other notable upgrades: Chrome now does full-screen videos with both HTML5 controls and subtitles, and it boasts improved support for multi-window devices. Head over to Google Play to grab the update if you’re a regular web movie watcher.
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Internet, Software, HD, Mobile, Google
Source: Chrome Releases, Google Play
How PlayStation Move shaped the PS4
The PlayStation Move has been called a lot of bad names. It’s the PlayStation peripheral that’s least used by game devs, least purchased by console owners, and least spoken of by Sony itself. Some of that sentiment’s been turning lately, ever since Sony showed off Project Morpheus a few weeks ago and demonstrated what an impact something like Move has on virtual reality immersion (the controller works for both PS3 and PS4). And the guy who heads up PlayStation’s worldwide game studios, Shuhei ” Shu” Yoshida, says Move is responsible for far more than it’s given credit.
“This project was one of the very first hardware projects formed with three groups: the software engineering team at SCEA, the hardware engineers at SCEI in Japan, and the Worldwide Studios team making games using the motion controller,” Yoshida told attendees of a presentation tonight at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. He and PlayStation 4 lead architect Mark Cerny explained that this trifecta was the first in a string of major collaborations: PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and now Project Morpheus.
The Move was originally called the “Y-con” (we’re checking on the spelling). Cerny highlighted the name on purpose: it’s representative of the trio of groups coming together on a single device. Three points in a Y, three groups at Sony — thus, the Y-con. Sony R&D engineer Richard Marks may be the man debuting new PlayStation peripherals (he’s based at SCEA), but his team’s work is the product of a collaboration with the folks actually making the games.
More than just three groups coming together, it was three groups at Sony working as one. It signaled a change from the previous approach to hardware in the gaming world. Yoshida offered an example by contrast: PlayStation 3′s Sixaxis controller.
Yoshida: I was managing the west development group at the time and I get a call from a product manager in Japan, like, three weeks before E3. And she told me that we should know that the new controller we’re developing, it has motion sensors in it. And I’m like, Oh, okay, great! So, look at that!
So she said, “We have a prototype we’ll send you, so can you make something to show at E3.”
Cerny: So they’d managed to develop a new controller without ever involving the person who made games for a consumer.
Yikes, right? Thankfully, the concept of “Y” solidified as time went on, and now we’ve got great devices like the PlayStation 4 and Vita to enjoy as a result. It won’t change our opinion of the Move’s lacking software library, but we can’t say we won’t look a bit more fondly on the poor old Move as the years roll on.
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Peripherals, Software, HD, Sony
Age of Empires: World Domination is going to be conquering Android in Summer 2014
I fondly remember many a night in my younger years playing Age of Empires II on PC, one of the best strategy games of its time. Well, Microsoft and KLab have decided to revive the strategy series on mobile, calling the game Age of Empires: World Domination. Following the historical themes of its predecessors, World Domination will let you play as some of the world’s greatest historical armies such as the Celts, Vikings and Huns. Check out the trailer that was released today:
The game is supposed to be released sometime in Summer 2014 for Android, iOS and Windows Phone, and looks like it will be inheriting the real-time strategy gameplay of its forefathers. The mobile platform doesn’t usually lend itself to strategy games very well, however it looks like they may have adopted sufficiently simple game mechanics to allow it to be played on the smaller screens. There aren’t may more details than that at the moment, but you can sign up for any updates on the World Domination website (link is down below).
Are you excited to hear that Age of Empires: World Domination is going to be on Android? What are your fondest memories of playing Age of Empires games? Share your nostalgia with us in the comments.
Source: AOEWD via TalkAndroid
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