PBS gives parents a way to monitor what kids are watching on its site

The PBS KIDS website is a pretty great hub of entertainment for little ones. And even though there’s nothing but useful learning content to be enjoyed there, PBS still wanted to make it easy for parents to monitor what their kids are doing on the site. Enter PBS KIDS Super Vision, an iOS application which promises to give you, the parent, a powerful tool that lets you do anything from keeping track of what the kids are watching in real-time, to limiting the amount of time they can spend on certain activities.

But this isn’t just about having control over your children. PBS is also going to use Super Vision to recommend things you can be doing with your kids based on the type of stuff they access the most on PBSKIDS.org. Better yet, parents can keep track of all of this via the Activity Summary within the app, which breaks down the educational skills, games, shows and videos that your beloved children use every time they’re logged in. The network says we should expect Super Vision to get even more helpful with time, since it plans to use your feedback to drive features for the app in the future.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

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Source: App Store

United States credit card system begins complete overhaul in the next 18 months

The United States is lagging behind most of the world when it comes to credit card technology, but luckily it’s about to catch up. In the next 18 months, the US is gearing up to transition debit and credit cards away from the magnetic stripe to chip-and-PIN technology, which is already widely used in Europe, Asia and beyond. Who can you thank for the long-overdue upgrade? Target, whose data security breach earlier this year highlighted the security flaws in the magnetic stripe system. It’s a 50-year-old technology, after all, and it’s much easier to counterfeit than the computer chip in your next Visa card.

In addition to adding a chip to each of the 1.2 billion credit and debit cards circulating in the US, the rehaul requires upgrading card readers at retail locations, and there’s plenty of incentive for businesses to hop on board with the change. If your local WalMart doesn’t adopt chip and PIN readers, it will be held accountable for any fraudulent face-to-face transactions. Point-of-sale systems used by smaller businesses, such as Square and PayPal here, will need to reissue card scanners as well.

According to research firm Javelin, the upgrade could take about three years, with international and premium cards getting the switch to chip and PIN first. For the record, there are already several cards with the new tech available to Americans, from American Express and JPMorgan Chase among other institutions.

Filed under: Misc

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Via: Bloomberg

New Video for Phonebloks Shows Us Modules Not just for Phones

Phonebloks took the community by storm when the concept was displayed in a video that circulated throughout the internet. It is a beautiful concept of not having to upgrade your entire phone, and only just upgrading the parts you need. This is made possible by the modules that act like LEGO pieces, so if your WiFi antenna breaks, you can just detach it and attach a brand-new one. Project Ara is Google’s take on the concept, and hopefully we will see something innovative come out from them, but in the meantime, let’s dream about the Phonebloks concept not only existing in the phone world.

The video below shows us the Phoneblocks concept being used with common household appliances. Say you need some added storage for your smart appliances, you can easily accomplish this by attaching a new module to one of those appliances. This is where the people behind Phonebloks want to take the technology, and I fully agree with it. To expand the concept to multiple pieces of technology can only be beneficial to us tech enthusiasts. So check out the video below and let us know your thoughts about it.

Source: Android Police

Fitbit Flex Review: where tech and sweat meet

With all the different activity trackers on the market today it can be hard to decide which one to go with. Many questions race through my mind like, “Can I get it wet?”, “How long will it last on a charge?”, “Will it bother me throughout the day?”, “Is it really worth it?”.  Well, I have gotten my hands on the Fitbit Flex and I will answer these questions plus many more.

At first glance, the Flex looks like bracelet with a black bar running across the top of it, but it is so much more.  The Flex allows you to track your steps, calories consumed and burned, distance, and sleep.  The Flex is “water-resistant” and can be submerged to 10 meters.  Now the only information available on the Flex itself are 5 small dots that appear once you double tap the device.  Which doesn’t sound like much, but the amount people use their smartphones these days, it is really no big deal.  Well, lets dig into it and see what we got!

What’s in the box

• Flex tracker
• Large & small wristbands
• Wireless sync dongle
• Charging cable
• Free Fitbit.com membership – includes ability to log and track activity, food, sleep, water, body mass, weight, and more

Display

Now, you can only set the Flex to display your current status of a goal.  So lets say you want to walk 10,000 steps a day, well double tap the screen and if you’ve walked say, 4,000 steps, two dots will glow solid saying you’ve completed 40% of your goal.  This can also be applied to distance or calories burned.  The display is small, but it is really all you need to get a quick update throughout your day.  If you really wanna know how far away the mailbox is, just open the app and start walking.  The app will update in real time how many steps you have gone, kinda cool!

Durability

The band is made of a high strength rubber material with a metal clasp holding the band together around your wrist.  The tracker itself is removable from the band and is made of hard plastic.  The tracker fits inside the band very easily and is highly unlikely to fall out.  The band feels great and isn’t made of some crap you think is going to break.  Fitbit has done an excellent job at designing the band for all the elements, I forget it is there most of the time.

Functionality

Like I said before the Flex is much more than a pedometer on your wrist.  With its interactive app, I can track all sorts of data throughout my day from water intake, distance, steps, sleep and calories.

One of my favorite features that works really well is the sleep monitor.  In order to put the Flex into sleep mode you just tap is five times and it will start vibrating letting you know you are in sleep mode.  In order to bring it out of sleep mode you do the same thing and wait for the vibration.  It is really neat to see how much “quality” sleep I get throughout the night and how many times I am restless or awake.  The app allows you to see back one year of activity, which is nice to track how much sleep I received on a given night.

Battery life on the Flex is roughly 5 days, per Fitbit’s website.  However, I have been getting about 6 to 7 days of life out it.  Charging the device is easy as well, just plug the tracker into the adapter and about 75 minutes later you are good to go.

The syncing of the Flex is “ok”.  You can set the app to update in the background, which uses more battery, but I don’t notice a difference on my HTC One M8.  However, even when I have background sync enabled and I open up the app, it still takes around 20 seconds for the Flex to sync up.  Now, this doesn’t sound terrible, but my wife has a Fitbit and on her iPhone 5s, it syncs in about 3 seconds every time.  I’m not sure what the deal is with this, but like in every relationship and in technology, there is always give and take.

Software

The app is easy to setup and use.  It took me about 2 minutes to setup an account and sync my Flex to my phone.  The app itself is laid out quite nicely with your Dashboard as your main screen that lays out all the stats of the current day.  You can then switch over to the device itself and add “Silent Alarms” which is a fantastic feature.  The silent alarm will vibrate your arm for whatever time you set it and won’t wake up the entire household when it goes off.  You can also edit your Fitbit profile, check your battery status or previous activity from past days.  Fitbit will also send you an email when your battery is low, so nice!

Now, whatever you do, do not become friends with anybody on Fitbit unless, they are lazier than you.  I have a few friends who are, lets just say, over-active, and they are constantly taunting me and cheering me on to do more steps.  It is actually a nice feature, the app allow you to request friends that are in your contacts or who have a Fitbit account.  Once they are your friends, they can see how many steps you have done throughout the week.  This also allows you to cheer on your buddy who is doing great or to “taunt” your friends to pick up the pace.  I get taunted daily, thank you honey!

BlinkFeed

Another last minute feature is the integration into BlinkFeed, if you’re not sure what this is check out my HTC One M8 review, which post onto your feed your best day or you can just see what Fitbit has to say by selecting it in your BlinkFeed.

Overall

The Flex is an awesome activity tracker that has a lot of functionality and you don’t have to worry about it getting messed up.  Fitbit also has widgets that can be placed on your home screens, sorry iPhone users take that up with Apple.  Overall, I highly recommend the Fitbit Flex because not only does it challenge you to be more proactive, but it makes it fun as well.  The Flex comes in many different colors and would be the perfect gift this Mother’s Day! Check out the official Flex site here!

The post Fitbit Flex Review: where tech and sweat meet appeared first on AndroidGuys.

Lyft’s new premium service hauls you around in high-tech style

So you’re out on the town with five of your best buddies, and you want a posh ride to the next party without paying a premium for Uber SUV or a limo. Are you stuck? Not after today — Lyft has unveiled Plus, a high-end service which promises luxuriant ridesharing that won’t hit your bank account quite so hard. Choose the new tier and a customized Ford Explorer will show up with room for six and one of the company’s better-rated drivers. It’s a technology haven on the inside, to boot. You get power outlets to recharge your gadgets, and drivers have Spotify Premium access to handle your song requests.

A pilot rollout is starting today in San Francisco, with fares costing twice as much as run-of-the-mill Lyft rides. However, Plus should be a relative bargain if you’re already planning to splurge: the company claims that its new service costs 40 percent less than Uber SUV, and 20 percent less than ordinary Uber Black. It’s still going to be overkill if all you need is a quick jaunt downtown, but it may be affordable enough to justify treating yourself every now and then.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Lyft