This treadmill lets you walk in any direction
No, that’s not a detached tank tread you’re looking at, it’s a treadmill — and it doesn’t care which direction you’re walking. It’s called the Infinadeck, and we found it hiding in a dark corner of the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Expo. Each of its tank-like treads is covered in a moving belt which, when used in tandem, gives the user the ability to stroll in any direction. The omni-directional treadmill has apparently caught the attention of CBS too, as a possible prop for filming on green-screen sets, but it isn’t ready: the prototype still requires an active operator to change directions. It’s also quite loud. Infinadeck says its trying to secure funding to build a more compact version with motion sensors, which should automate the process. Want to see how it works? Skip on past the break, videos await.
Filed under: Misc
Brazilians will see every blade of World Cup grass on outdoor 4K screens
If you’re in Rio de Janeiro this summer but can’t attend any World Cup matches in person, don’t fret; you may still be in for a treat. Brazilian TV giant Globo is teaming up with Sony to broadcast three live Cup games (a second-round match, a quarterfinal and the final) in 4K quality, and it’s putting 65-inch sets in Rio’s Jardim Botanico neighborhood so that the public can watch. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen live soccer futebol play out in 4K, and there will be a handful of feeds in other countries. However, Globo’s offering promises to be one of the more exciting test runs for high-res sports — particularly for locals determined to cheer on the home team.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Sony
Via: Bloomberg
Source: Globo (translated)
The Cogito Pop: An Analog Smartwatch with Some Style [Product Review]
Smartwatches have certainly been booming in the past year, and soon we will be getting our first watches that will be running the smartwatch OS, Android Wear. But for those that aren’t entirely about having a ton of features on their wrist, smartwatch manufacturers like Cogito give you a stylish alternative in the smartwatch world.
The Cogito Pop is Cogito’s latest smartwatch that gives you an analog watch experience that has a little nifty features added to it. If you are like me, you don’t need to be able to send a text, or make a phone call from your wrist. As much as the kid inside loves having that Dick Tracy feature, I’m okay with just having an extension of my smartphone, not a replacement. So when we went to the Cogito panel at this year’s CES, we were introduced to the Cogito Pop and the Cogito Original. The Original has more features with a fancy LCD display that looks just marvelous, but the Pop is more for style, and most likely more for kids.
Features and Specs
Time
- 3 hands Japanese analog movement
Notifications
- Incoming Call and Missed Call
- Text and Social Media Message
- Calendar event
- Low / Critical Low alert of phone’s battery
Actions
- Remote music control
- Remote trigger phone’s camera
- Find phone / watch
- Mute incoming call (*Support on Android device only)
Watch Resistance
- 10 ATM
Battery
- No Recharge Required – Extra-long battery life by a standard cell button battery
One of the first things you must do when setting up your Cogito is downloading the Cogito Connected Watch app out of the Play Store or App Store. When it comes to Android, you must go into your Notification Access settings to turn on permissions for the app to receive your Notifications, so it can send them to your watch. Once you have taken care that, you will of course pair your watch with your Bluetooth on your phone. I found it to be very easy to pair the Pop to my phone, simply just by following the directions given in the guide. Once you have paired your phone and watch, you can then go into the Connected Watch app to pick which notifications you want to receive on your watch. I love that they give you the option for this, because if you are one of those that get a ton of notifications an hour, you don’t want your watch to be vibrating constantly on your wrist.
The app also gives you a camera icon to press, so that way you can prop your phone up somewhere and then take a quick picture by hitting a button on your watch. It’s a nice feature for anyone wanting to take a picture with a group, and not having one person out of the picture because they have to snap it. You can also begin playing your music from your watch by hitting a side button, which I found to work pretty well, and can see it being useful in life.
The Good
As I stated up top about the Cogito being easy to pair, the rest of the functions are very easy to use. They have simplified the experience in the Pop where even your Mom can handle all what it can do. Also, with it being mainly made out of plastic, the watch can withstand some of the everyday mishaps out there. The battery life is another aspect that will appeal to the consumer, simply because it is a smartwatch that does not have to charge, and you can get a year out of the battery.
The Bad
The Pop isn’t for your everyday tech enthusiast like myself. At first glance, it looks like a watch that you would buy a child, or that hipster in your family that wear very bright and vibrant colors. The features are pretty nice on the Pop, but they are very basic compared to the Original, so again, it doesn’t quite appeal to me as much as other smartwatches out there. That being said, I think Cogito have chosen the target consumer being a child or teenager, or people who have that bright color style.
Sadly after a few of days, my phone and the watch stopped being friends with each other, and I couldn’t pair the watch to my Nexus 5 anymore. Tried many times to pair it, by rebooting my phone, and uninstalling the Cogito app, but no luck. Not sure if it has to do with the software on my phone not being compatible with the Pop, or if the watch itself it is to blame.
Conclusion
The Cogito Pop is a simple and stylish analog smartwatch that is simple enough for anyone to use, and fits the style of a certain group of people out there. $130 isn’t that steep of a price with all the features you get, so I would recommend it for that teenager in your life. Not exactly for us tech enthusiasts, but the Original is more of what I like, and we hope to get a review of that version very soon. Was going to shoot a video showing off the Cogito Pop, but like I stated above, the watch and my phone stopped being friends with each other. Head over to the Cogito website to take a look at what Cogito has to offer.
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Android 4.4.3 Almost Here! T-Mobile HTC One M8 Gets New Update! – Device Updates
Monday is over, so let’s talk some updates. Not many updates this past week, but Android 4.4.3 was spotted in the wild by someone who was not supposed to leak out that screenshot. These days, do they really trust people? Sadly they still do. Enjoy the video.
Device Updates
Android 4.4.3 almost here
T-Mobile HTC One M8 update
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Engadget Daily: Flip-phones in Japan, what you need to know about net neutrality 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.
Japan: the country where flip-phones refuse to die
The reign of the flip-phone is definitely over, but folks in Japan just can’t seem to let it go. In fact, A Docomo spokesman told us foldable handsets are still so popular that many of their customers prefer it over a smartphone.
What you need to know about net neutrality
The concept of net neutrality is simple, however, its implications are enormous. Read on as our own Ben Gilbert breaks down the arguments behind an open internet and dissects how ISP regulation could affect you.
AT&T’s multibillion dollar DirecTV purchase could hinge on… football?
AT&T is planning to buy DirecTV, but one factor could stand in the way: football. According to an interesting clause between parties, the purchase can be terminated if DirecTV fails to secure the rights to continue offering NFL Sunday Ticket.
Watch Michael Jackson’s holographic return at the Billboard Music Awards
Just after releasing his posthumous record called Xscape, Michael Jasckson made a holographic appearance at the Billboard Music Awards. And yes, there was moonwalking.
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Filed under: Misc
AT&T’s solar charging stations invade New York again
Next time you’re at a park, beach or high-traffic spot in New York, and your phone battery’s running low, look for the contraption in the image above. That’s AT&T’s Street Charge station, which harnesses the power of the sun so you can continue tweeting and uploading those selfies on the go. Ma Bell is installing 45 of these in several locations around the state, almost double the charging stations it installed in the summer of 2013 when the initiative first launched. The company’s using newer, sturdier, more weather-resistant models this time, though, and they’ll be deployed across several places in the five boroughs, which are listed after the break. If you’re wondering, yes you’re free to use these phone, tablet and general gadget chargers even if you’re not an AT&T customer. And yes, the stations are usable even at night (thanks to internal batteries that store the sun’s power), but they can only rescue you from total battery depletion until September.
Check out the list below, or a map of the stations on AT&T’s website.
Manhattan:
- Central Park
- Marcus Garvey Park
- Coenties Slip
- Old Slip
- Mannahatta
- Pier 15
- East River Esplanade
- Bowling Green Park
- South Street Seaport
- Edgar Plaza
- Union Square
- Governor’s Island
Queens:
- Flushing Meadows Corona Park
- Rockaway Beach
The Bronx:
- Orchard Beach
Brooklyn:
- Brooklyn Bridge Park
- Coney Island
- Brighton Beach
Staten Island:
- South Beach
- Midland Beach
Filed under: Misc, Mobile, AT&T
Source: AT&T
$17 million technology prize lets you choose which of humanity’s problems to solve
Technology prizes are nothing new, but they tend to be focused on specific issues like space travel or security flaws. The upcoming Longitude Prize, funded by the Nesta charity and the UK government, will be a little more… ambitious. The duo is promising a £10 million ($17 million) reward for the best solution to one of six greater challenges that humanity faces today, such as developing eco-friendly flight or giving independence to the paralyzed. While the winning entry will have to help the British economy in some way, this is otherwise a truly global competition; anyone can enter, and the end result will ideally help the world at large.
And unlike many such challenges, you’ll get a say. Longitude’s committee is opening up voting to the public between May 22nd and June 25th, so there’s a real chance that your preferred cause will get the nod. Whether or not your pick wins, the prize may help foster interest in technology as a humanitarian tool — there’s a chance that everyone will benefit in the long run.
[Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Filed under: Transportation, Science
Via: The Independent
Source: Longitude Prize
Gmail Updating to V4.8, Brings Rich Account Switching and More [APK Download]
Google is pushing out an update for Gmail this evening. The update moves the app from V4.7.2 to v4.8. That is pretty hefty jump in version number and it certainly bring a number of great changes. Among the changes you will see a number of visual alterations that help move GMail more inline with the looks of the other suit of Google apps. For instance, you now have the richer avatar account look in the left slider. No more little radio button dots to change accounts.
You will also notice that the animation when you pull down to refresh is not clue, but instead the yellow, red, green and blue that you are familiar with in G+ and other apps.
You will also be greeted with a new ‘no conversations’ page that has a sad cloud on it. Google also shifted the Settings, Help and Feedback buttons to the slider at the bottom.
A few other note worthy changes include visually being able to an entire truncated message instead of only part of it and you can directly print an attachment or send it to your Drive account.
All-in-all, a pretty good update and one that was long over due. You can kick back and wait for the typical staged rollout to hit your device, or you can hit the link below to download the APK now and get it up and running.
Source: AndroidPolice
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Must See HDTV for the week of May 19th: Indy 500 and no Game of Thrones
That’s right, we’re taking a week off from Game of Thrones. To help us get through it, the NBA and NHL playoffs have both amped up the pressure while the weekend of racing includes NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600, the Indy 500, and F1 in Monaco. Warehouse 13 has its series finale, while From Dusk Till Dawn, Bones, Revolution and many others have their finales. CW also reviists an old favorite with its Labyrinth miniseries this week, while on blu-ray we have Monuments Men and Pompeii. Check after the break for a list of what’s new this week plus a few trailers, and drop a note in the comments if you see any highlights that we’ve missed.
[Image credit: Joe Robbins/Getty Images]
Blu-ray, Streaming movies & Games
- The Monuments Men
- 3 Days to Kill
- Pompeii (3D)
- Vampire Academy
- Nikita (S4)
- McLintock!
- About Last Night
- Call the Midwife
- Transistor (PS4, PC)
- Wolfenstein: The New Order (Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4)
- Drakengard (PS3)
- Mugen Souls Z (PS3)
Monday
- Bones (season finale), Fox, 8PM
- Dancing with the Stars, ABC, 8PM
- Years of Living Dangerously, Showtime, 8PM
- The Voice, NBC, 8PM
- WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
- Friends with Better Lives, CBS, 8:30PM
- 24: Live Another Day, Fox, 9PM
- Mike & Molly (season finale), CBS, 9PM
- Warehouse 13 (series finale), Syfy, 9PM
- The Maya Rudolph Show (series premiere), NBC, 10PM
- Louie, FX, 10 & 10:30PM
- Metal Hurlant Chronicles (season finale), Syfy, 10 & 10:30PM
- The Boondocks, Cartoon Network, 10:30PM
Tuesday
- Coming Back with Wes Moore, PBS, 8PM
- Judge Judy Primetime, CBS, 8PM
- Heat/Pacers Game 2, ESPN, 8:30PM
- ACM Presents: an All-Star Salute to the Troops, CBS, 9PM
- Dancing with the Stars (season finale), ABC, 9PM
- The Voice (season finale), NBC, 9PM
- I Wanna Marry “Harry” (series premiere), Fox, 9PM
- From Dusk Till Dawn (season finale), El Rey Network, 9PM
- Supernatural (season finale), CW, 9PM
- Growing Up Fisher, NBC, 9:30PM
- Freakshow, AMC, 10 & 10:30PM
- Fargo, FX, 10PM
- Playing House, USA, 10PM
- Awkward, MTV, 10PM
- The Listener, ION, 10 & 11PM
- Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan, BBC America, 10PM
- Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Inside Amy Schumer, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
- Faking It, MTV, 10:30PM
- Small Town Security, AMC, 11PM
Wednesday
- Inside: US Soccer’s March to Brazil, ESPN, 7PM
- Survivor (season finale), CBS, 8PM
- American Idol (season finale), Fox, 8PM
- The Middle (season finale), ABC, 8PM
- Revolution (season finale), NBC, 8PM
- Nature, PBS, 8PM
- Kings/Blackhawks Game 2, NBC Sports Network, 8PM
- Thunder/Spurs Game 2, TNT, 9PM
- The 100, CW, 9PM
- Law & Order: SVU (season finale), NBC, 9PM
- Modern Family (season finale), ABC, 9PM
- Mixology (season finale), ABC, 9:30PM
- Motive (season premiere), ABC, 10PM
- Catfish, MTV, 10PM
- The Americans (season finale), FX, 10PM
- Chicago PD (season finale), NBC, 10PM
- The Ultimate Fighter, Fox Sports 1, 10PM
- Triptank (season finale), Comedy Central, 10:30PM
- Deal With It, TBS, 10:30PM
Thursday
- Labyrinth (mini-series premiere part 1 of 2), CW, 8PM
- Canadiens/Rangers Game 3, NBC Sports Network, 8PM
- Last Comic Standing (season premiere), NBC, 9PM
- Gang Related, Fox, 9PM
- Bad Teacher, CBS, 9:30PM
- Maron, IFC, 10PM
- Real World/Road Rules Challenge, MTV, 10PM
- Black Box, ABC, 10PM
- Comedy Bang! Bang!, IFC, 10:30PM
- Loiter Squad, Cartoon Network, 11:59PM
Friday
- Tumble Leaf (series premiere), Amazon, 12:01AM
- Labyrinth (part 2 of 2), CW, 8PM
- WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM
- Continuum, Syfy, 10PM
- Hannibal (season finale), NBC, 10PM
- Vice, HBO, 11PM
Saturday
- Blackhawks/Kings Game 3, NBC, 8PM
- Pacers/Heat Game 3, ESPN, 8:30PM
- Orphan Black, BBC America, 9PM
- Da Vinci’s Demons, Starz, 9PM
- In the Flesh, BBC America, 10PM
Sunday
- Monaco F1 GP, NBC, 7:30PM
- Indianapolis 500, ABC, 11AM
- NASCAR Sprint Cup Series @ Charlotte, Fox, 6PM
- Cardinals/Reds, ESPN, 8PM
- Canadiens/Rangers Game 4, NBC Sports Network, 8PM
- Spurs/Thunder, TNT, 8:30PM
- Believe, NBC, 9PM
- Nurse Jackie, Showtime, 9PM
- The Normal Heart, HBO, 9PM
- Turn, AMC, 9PM
- Californication, Showtime, 9:30PM
- Crisis, NBC, 10PM
- Mad Men (spring finale), AMC, 10PM
- Penny Dreadful, Showtime, 10PM
- Robot Chicken, Cartoon Network, 11:30PM
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Google’s new Chrome experiment lets you remix the Rubik’s Cube
Sure, you could spend a while trying to solve the Rubik’s Cube in Google’s new Doodle, but that may get a little dry. Google was clearly prepared for that eventuality, though: it has just launched the Cube Lab, a Chrome experiment that lets you build your own internet-based puzzle. So long as you’re good with modern web code, you can produce a unique Rubik’s Cube with its own artwork, effects and even logic. The 808 Cube is all about music-making, for instance. Even if you’re not a programmer, it’s worth checking out the ready-made Lab examples to have some fun. We just wish we’d had this when we were kids — it would have kept us playing with Rubik’s Cubes long after the original got buried in the closet.
Via: Chrome (Google+)
Source: Chrome Cube Lab
AIVAnet 