Even chickens have their own virtual world
How much would you pay for organic, virtual free-range chicken breasts? It doesn’t really matter, you can’t buy such a thing. But Austin Stewart, an assistant professor at Iowa State University, really seems to like the idea. He’s been traveling the country showing off Second Livestock, a concept that takes cooped-up poultry and grants them the gift of being free-range through virtual reality headsets and an omni-directional treadmill. The truth is, despite Stewart’s stone-faced presentations, that Second Livestock is not a real thing, and it likely never will be. But it is meant to showcase just how much we rely on technology to solve our myriad problems and how it impacts our own lives.
Obviously we don’t have the space or resources to allow every chicken in the country to be free range, but we’re not always entirely comfortable with the cramped filthy conditions our future meals are raised in. Thus was born this virtual environment where chickens can roam free, at least in their minds. But the project is as much about human relationships as it is about chickens. We spend our days isolated in cubicles glued to a computer screen — just how different is that from a chicken coop? Well, we’re not rolling around in our own feces, so that’s an advantage. If you’re not into feeling introspective and down right now, then just sit back and enjoy the Photoshopped image above. I mean, come on — it’s a chicken wearing a VR headset!
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Second Livestock
Meet Skylock, the smart bike lock that can save you after a crash
There are plenty of smart bike locks that warn you about thieves, and some will even let you share your bike if you’re the generous sort. However, their utility often stops when you start riding — which is where Velo Labs’ new Skylock comes in. The security system compares its own motion sensor data with that of your smartphone to tell if you’ve been in an accident. If you tumble off and don’t respond within a set time frame, Skylock will alert emergency services that you’re in trouble.
As you’d hope, Skylock covers the baseline features many have come to expect from smart locks: it’ll let you know where your bike is and if someone is trying to tamper with it, and you can lend out your wheels to others. This may be the lock of choice if you hate recharging, too, since its solar panel will give you a week of power from an hour’s worth of sunlight. Just be ready to pony up. Velo is crowdfunding the Skylock’s hoped-for late 2014 launch, with a relatively high $159 pledge required to set a unit aside for yourself. That’s still a bargain over the expected $249 retail sticker, though, and it could easily be worth the expense if it saves you after a nasty spill.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Skylock
Univision dials up its own MVNO on back of T-Mobile network
Spanish-language TV network Univision on Thursday announced its own wireless service, Univision Mobile. Aimed at Hispanics living in the United States, the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) operates on the back of T-Mobile’s 2G/3G network.
Univision Mobile offers no-contract plans that start as low as $30 per month. The $30 plan includes unlimited talk and text; a $45 plans adds up to 2.5GB of 3GB data. Those who sign up to the service will receive:
- Exclusive access to tailor-made content, downloadable assets, events, campaigns and apps. Right out of the box, customers are a click away from unique Univision content, specifically tailored to Hispanic Americans’ interests and needs, including sneak peeks of new Univision shows and premieres, as well as opportunities for behind-the-scenes VIP access to Univision events and television/radio personalities.
- Unlimited domestic voice calling
- 100 minutes to call mobile or landline numbers from the U.S. to eight Latin American countries, including Mexico – the ONLY wireless service with built-in International voice services to Latin American countries.
- Unlimited International texting from the U.S. to select Latin American countries and 200+ countries and destinations around the world – more than twice the countries provided by other carriers.
Univision Mobile will be offered in Walmart stores effective May 19 and will also be available for purchase in Univision-branded stores in Puerto Rico.
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HTC One Remix is coming to Verizon
HTC One (M8) is HTC’s flagship and pretty much everyone knows that, however HTC is dangerously stepping into Samsung’s territory by pushing HTC One brand on a bunch of devices.
HTC already announced HTC One (M8) Harmon Kardon edition, we’ve had some leaks of HTC One (M8) mini and now HTC One Remix name has surfaced. HTC looks eager to push as many devices they can with the HTC One brand. There’s not much to go on here, all it says in the leak is “HTC One Remix” and “coming to Verizon” but it has plenty of credibility considering it’s coming from @evleaks, considering their track record of course, plus there’s a “HTC One Remix” entry in USPTO filing so the device is definitely a reality.
What do you think/hope this device will turn out to be, another music centered device or maybe something unexpected, a hardware change perhaps? We can only guess, until then you can find our HTC One review here, David did a great job on it and confirmed it’s one of the best smartphones around.
SOURCE: @evleaks, USPTO
VIA: Pocketnow
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Samsung: 11 million Galaxy S5 sales in first month
As if you might have expected anything else, Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S5 is off to a strong start. According to Co-CEO JK Shin, the new flagship smartphone is selling better than any of its predecessors. How well is it doing? In the first month since it was released the Samsung Galaxy S5 has been sold 11 million times. Thanks to an ever-increasing presence (125+ countries), the handset also benefits from standalone retail stores and market saturation.
Are you among the 11 million buyers? Do you plan to join the club or is there something else you’ve got your eye on?
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Guinness World Record for fast texting is broken by Fleksy Keyboard
One of our favorite keyboards announces new Guinness World Record, new updates, and extended trial
At AndroidGuys, Fleksy is one of our favorite keyboards to use on our mobile devices. It’s one of the fastest growing keyboards out there, and their progress is absolutely getting recognized worldwide. The new world record, typed on a Fleksy Keyboard, was set by Marcel Fernandes in 18.19 seconds. Here’s the record-breaking sentence:
The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.
Fleksy is here to announce a little more than setting a new world record. New updates are pushing out to the Android app allowing users to try to break the “World Record Challenge” themselves. It will also be 50% off until May 29th, rendering it only $1.99. If you’re still on the 30-day free trial, two more weeks will be added to your version.
This is some well-deserved, great news from Fleksy. If you haven’t yet tried the keyboard, head to the Google Play link below to try it! Also, catch the press release below.
Fleksy Keyboard Breaks the Guinness World Record for Fastest Texting
Celebrates World Record with Major Android and iOS Updates Featuring Fleksy’s Most Accurate Performance yet.
Now Available in Google Play with 2 More Weeks Added to the 30-day Free Trial.
Fleksy, the award-winning touchscreen keyboard company, today announced that it just broke the Guinness World Record for fastest texting on a touch-screen mobile phone. Marcel Fernandes, a longtime Fleksy user, broke the record in New York City with a time of 18.19 seconds at an official Guinness event, making Fleksy the fastest smartphone keyboard in the world.
Fleksy takes the coveted title while introducing its much anticipated next-generation accuracy engine on both mobile platforms. The new Fleksy engine features improved correction accuracy, including space error corrections and an improved language engine for its award winning keyboard. The previous record holders were Microsoft and Swype.
“We’ve been passionate about building the most comfortable, beautiful, and fastest smartphone keyboard ever since we started” says Ioannis Verdelis, Founder and COO of Fleksy. “The Guinness World Record is a great testament to our progress, and we are pleased that our latest improvements make Fleksy the world’s fastest keyboard for smartphones.”
To support Fleksy’s Guinness World Record-breaking speed, the team has released updates to Fleksy for both Android and iOS. Both apps feature the most accurate Fleksy Engine yet. The iOS update features 6 new languages, and the Android app includes a new World Record Challenge, allowing Fleksy users to beat Fleksy’s own record and win badges and prizes.
Fleksy for Android will be 50% off in the Google Play Store until May 29 and all previous free trials will be extended until May 29. “We’ve made a lot of improvements to our product in the last months, and we want to give everyone the chance to try the world class technology we’ve been building” said Kosta Eleftheriou, Founder and CEO of Fleksy.
About Fleksy:
Fleksy is a revolutionary keyboard powered by patent-pending technology that makes typing on any device fast, accurate and so easy you can type without looking. Its unique language algorithm founded on Geometric Intelligence moves beyond text prediction and autocorrect to give a much more accurate and easier typing experience than other keyboards.
Winner of the 2013 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award, Fleksy is the first keyboard app to be demonstrated on a 3D gesture system (Leap Motion); the first to be demonstrated on a smartwatch (Omate) and the first to arrive on iOS. Fleksy’s award-winning design and technology is backed by venture capital firms including Highland Capital Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. To learn more about Fleksy, visit http://www.fleksy.com.
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Xiaomi announces a 49-inch 4K Android TV for a whopping $640
Tech lovers worldwide have just been given a reason to envy China. Early this morning Xiaomi just announced that it is releasing a 49-inch 4K Android TV called the MI TV 2.
Despite the price being around the same price as most flagship phones, this television comes with decent mid-range specs when compared to an Android mobile device and awesome specs when compared to other televisions. It boasts a MediaTek MStar 6A918 chip (1.45GHz quad-core CPU, Mali-45 MP4 GPU), 2 GB of RAM, plus 8GB of storage space with the ability to add up to 64GB more via a MicroSD card. Best part of all is that this TV comes with Android (using the MIUI TV skin) installed and an amazing 49-inch 4K 3D screen manufactured by either LG or CSOT.
The MI TV 2 takes its modernization of the TV one step further by ditching the old infrared remote and adding a Bluetooth LE remote. Xiaomi takes full advantage of the Bluetooth by adding features like “find remote” by tapping a button on the bottom of the TV to make your lost remote beep. If remotes aren’t your thing, you can use the app instead and control your TV using gestures and/or voice. The app will also bring up related information about the TV programs you are watching from sources like IMDB.
The innovation didn’t stop there. To make the TV only 15.55mm thick, CEO Lei Jun said that his team decided to store the speakers in separate parts. There is a wired audio bar that has the mid-range and treble drivers and a Bluetooth subwoofer. Having the Bluetooth speakers enables users to connect their mobile devices to the audio system to pump out music from their phones as well.
Availability is set for May 27th in China. No word if this TV will make an appearance Stateside or Europe anytime soon.
Source: Engadget
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HTC One mini 2 gets its official launch
HTC UK have today officially announced the launch of the much rumoured One Mini 2, the little brother of their extremely popular flagship HTC One (M8) Android smartphone.
With the covers finally taken off, the One Mini 2 is very similar to rumoured design and specs that have been doing the rounds. As expected it is a scaled down version of the bigger sibling but it still packs some impressive hardware and the same eye pleasing design features found on the One M8 although It doesn’t have Duo Cameras with UltraPixel, just a more standard set-up of a single 13-megapixel lens on the rear but is sporting a new wide-angle 5MP front facing camera.
HTC have decided to opt for a MicroSD slot on the Mini 2 plus a lager 2100 mAh battery and BoomSound stereo speakers at the front. Under the hood , its running a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of internal storage.
The handset will run on the latest Android version of 4.4 KitKat, with Sense 6.0 in the mix and sport the same three colour options as the M8 (gunmetal gray, glacial silver and amber gold). It will be available in European stores from June 2014 and hopefully it will be inbound to the US soon.
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LG G3 and Quick Cover seen in public
Whilst the LG G3 isn’t officially released, we’ve seen many rumours surrounding the device, and even a teaser from LG to confirm the existence of the device, but as we build up to the official release on May 27th, the device has been seen out in the wild.
Not only is the device seen in the above picture, but also the associated Quick Cover accessory, and boy does it look like a big device – it seems that rumoured 5.5-inch qHD screen probably wasn’t just a rumour after all.
SOURCE: Seeko
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Samsung likely to announce new Galaxy S tablets at June 12th event
Samsung have just issued invites for a 2014 Galaxy Premiere event on June 12th at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Unsurprisingly perhaps then that Samsung are expected to be introducing a whole new lineup of their Galaxy Tab S lineup in both a 8.4-inch and 10.5-inch variation that will feature an AMOLED display that are expected to run at around 2560 x 1600 resolution.
The updated display technology and bump in resolution should make the yet-to-be announced Samsung Galaxy S Tab devices some of the best we’ve seen from the company yet.
Keep your eyes peeled at that June 12th event.
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