Starbucks to Roll Out 100,000 Wireless Smartphone Chargers at 7,500 U.S. Stores [iOS Blog]
Starbucks, in collaboration with Duracell, has announced that it will begin rolling out more than 100,000 Duracell Powermat wireless smartphone table chargers throughout 7,500 of its stores in the United States over the next three years. The announcement comes after the program was initially tested in Starbucks stores across Boston, Massachusetts and San Jose, California.
Notably, while Apple’s current iPhone line isn’t compatible with wireless charging out of the box, Duracell currently offers an AccessCase accessory for the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, and iPhone 4 that is compatible with Duracell’s Powermat and Starbucks’ wireless table chargers.
While phone manufacturers like Motorola and LG have added wireless charging capabilities to their phone over the past few years, Apple has yet to add the feature to the iPhone. However, Apple has shown past interest in the technology, with a report in 2011 noting that the company was experimenting with WiTricity wireless charging and another report in 2013 stating that Apple was looking at Qi inductive charging for the iPhone 5s.
Apple is also said to be including wireless charging functionality in its highly-rumored iWatch smartwatch, which is expected to launch this October.
Rovio Launches RPG-Based ‘Angry Birds Epic’ for iOS Devices [iOS Blog]
Rovio today launched Angry Birds Epic for iOS devices worldwide, featuring a fantasy-adventure story with RPG gameplay. The player controls Angry Birds characters Red, Chuck, and Bomb as they explore Piggy Island to battle the series’ classic pig villains.
Battles in game feature turned-based elements, as players can upgrade their characters’ abilities, armor, and weapons throughout the story. The game also features an extensive crafting system, which allows players to obtain and combine multiple parts to create a variety of weapons for use in battle.
The new title is Rovio’s first Angry Birds release of 2014, with the company also gearing up to launch Angry Birds Stella in September after teasing it earlier this year. The latter is expected to encompass multiple elements, as Rovio will tie-in animations, books, toys, and more alongside the game.
Angry Birds Epic is a free app for iOS devices and can be downloaded through the App Store. [Direct Link]
3D-printed corset turns see-through the more time you spend online
Corsets are typically used to squeeze torsos into shape, but designers Xuedi Chen and Pedro Oliveira had other ideas in mind. Instead of making another waist-pinching underwear, they’ve designed a 3D-printed corset that demonstrates how the internet has rendered us naked and vulnerable… by turning more and more transparent while the wearer stays online. The whole corset, aptly named x.pose and pictured above, represents a town, and each patch (connected to an Arduino board) stands for a neighborhood. Once the accompanying location software determines where the wearer’s accessing the internet from, it communicates with the Arduino board using the phone’s Bluetooth connection. The corresponding patch on the corset then pulsates and loses opacity the more data the user shares.
If you’re still wondering what the point of this design is, the creators say:
x.pose is an exploration and commentary on the current internet culture of our generation and the relationship we share with our data. Individuals carrying smartphones and connecting with services such as Google or Facebook have agreed, often without conscious consideration, to policies that grant these service providers explicit rights to harvest and utilize personal data on a massive scale.
That still doesn’t explain why it’s always women’s clothing that gets this kind of treatment, though. Remember that dress that turns see-through when the wearer’s turned on? Or that bra that unhooks only when you’re “in love?” Hey, designers fond of making crazy concepts: how about some high-tech suit or even tighty whities for a change?
Filed under: Wearables
Via: designbloom
Source: x.pose
Parrot’s two-wheeled MiniDrones to jump and fly into the US in August
While the AR.Drone quadrocopter is still Parrot’s most recognizable product, the company actually has other toy robots to offer. Take, for instance, the Jumping Sumo and Rolling Spider MiniDrones it showcased during this year’s CES, which are both slated to hit US shelves in August. The Jumping Sumo, a two-wheeled phone or tablet-controlled robot that can, well, hop and jump like its name implies, will retail for $159. Rolling Spider, on the other hand, is a $99 machine that comes with rotors and removable wheels, so it can roll around, climb walls and ceilings and (in a very unspider-like manner) even fly. Both will be available for pre-order as soon as July, but if you’re also waiting for Bebop, you may want to consider your budget first — that one will retail for at least $300 when it comes out.
Filed under: Robots
Via: IEEE
Source: Parrot
WiFi tech lets scientists monitor your vital signs through walls
MIT’s CSAIL lab has just taken its very cool but kinda creepy WiFi motion tracking to a new level: monitoring your vital signs from another room. Last we saw, the same researchers bounced low-powered WiFi signals (100x less than a home router) off of individuals to finely track their position behind a wall. The resulting 10cm (four inch) precision was nothing compared to what they can now do, however. Fancier algorithms enabled the system to approximate subjects’ volumes within millimeters, and then calculate their breathing level by amplifying and observing the subtle changes over time. From breathing levels, the researchers could extrapolate heart rate with 99 percent accuracy — something foreshadowed uncannily by earlier research. The tech may lead to non-invasive vital sign monitoring, more advanced baby monitors and other, more sinister, applications.
Amazon Launches ‘Prime Music’ Streaming Service with Access to Over One Million Songs
Amazon today officially launched its Prime Music streaming music service, offering Amazon Prime users unlimited, ad-free streaming on over a million songs. The service allows users to play specific curated playlists as well as the ability to add individual songs to a playlist, and offers unlimited offline playback for all songs available on the service.
Amazon has also rebranded its Amazon Cloud Player iOS app as Amazon Music [Direct Link], offering a refined interface and allowing users to access songs on the service, with tools for managing library and playlists. Like the web interface, Amazon also allows users to download music from Prime Music to a mobile device for offline listening.
As previously reported, Amazon’s music catalog appears to only include songs older than six months, likely to save the company on royalty costs. By comparison, other streaming music services such as Spotify, Rdio, and Beats Music all offer new releases to their subscribers. Apple’s iTunes Radio also offers new releases to listeners, however the service is centered more around users discovering new music through stations as opposed to searching for individual songs.
Amazon’s Prime Music service also joins the company’s Prime Instant Video offering, which allows access to a library of movie and TV shows. Currently, Amazon has 20 million paying Prime members that also receive free 2-day shipping on most items in addition to movie, music, and TV show access.
Amazon Prime Music is available now as a free service to current Amazon Prime members, with Amazon charging $99 per year for new Prime members. A free 30-day trial to the service is also available on Amazon’s website. The company is also expected to announce a smartphone with 3D capabilities next week Wednesday, June 18.
SwiftKey is now free, adds in-app premium features
SwiftKey is probably the most popular 3rd party keyboard for Android and rightfully so. It has an amazing prediction algorithms along with a bunch of other capabilities which make it so popular. SwiftKey got updated and along with that update came some nifty features along with a 100% price cut.
Yes, you read that right, SwiftKey is now free. This is great news if you’ve been contemplating if you should purchase the app or not. Though they didn’t get rid of payment altogether, SwiftKey now sports in-app purchases. But wait! Not the bad kind, at least in our opinion. The only thing you’ll be able to purchase in the app are the themes, which is great considering themes only influence the look of the keyboard not the functionality itself.
Speaking of themes, SwiftKey updated its theme database to include a whole bunch fo new themes. You’ll be able to change the look of the keyboard to pretty much anything you want and some themes are even free. New update also brings over 800 emojis along with the addition of a dedicated number row. These have been available in beta version of the app for a while now. They have also updated their auto correct algorithms to be smarter and also incorporate emojis when predicting your typing.
This is a great update if you ask us, but what do you think? Do you use Swiftkey?
SOURCE: Google Play Store
The post SwiftKey is now free, adds in-app premium features appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Amazon launches free streaming music service for Prime members
It looks like the rumors were true: Amazon has just launched Amazon Prime Music with a million-plus songs and unlimited streaming with no ads or restrictions. As we noted earlier, the service is free to Prime members (only in the US for now) who’ve paid $79 to $119 for a subscription, and Amazon clearly hopes that it’ll be yet another carrot to lure new subscribers. You’ll also be able to download music to listen offline, which will be available on Kindle Fire, iOS, Android and Mac/PC devices anywhere, thanks to Amazon’s Cloud Player. The site has already been stocked with hundreds of “expertly programmed” playlists like “Powerful Women of Pop” and we were able to successfully sign up and start listening ourselves. Take note that while a million songs sounds like a lot, Spotify currently has 20 million songs and Deezer has 30 million. In addition, the site doesn’t seem to carry much new music yet, with quite a few songs in the Billboard Top 100 still missing. We’re waiting to hear from Amazon, so stay tuned for more details.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, Amazon
Source: Amazon
AeroVelo is trying to build the world’s fastest bicycle
What do you do after you set the record for human-powered flight and bag the Sikorsky Prize by floating around in a pedal-driven helicopter? You break the human-powered speed record, of course — at least that’s what’s AeroVelo has planned. The team has made a habit of engineering machines that make the most of the human engine, and their latest project hopes to give mankind the ability to ride bicycles at 87 mph.
The team’s 140 km/h target speed sounds ambitious on its own, but the goal seems even more daunting when pitted against the current record: 133.78 km/h (83mph). That record was set by adding a measly 0.6 km/h to the previous top speed; besting it by a solid four miles per hour is definitely a bold ambition. That said, breaking records isn’t easy — or cheap — and the team has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help it fund development of its ETA Speedbike Project. Fund will be used to help them complete the project in time to compete in the World Human-Powered Speed Challenge in Battle Mountain, Nevada this September. Want to help make history? Check out that source link below.
Filed under: Misc, Transportation
Source: Kickstarter
The Sony Xperia Z2 is the official smartphone of the World Cup 2014
Samsung was a big winner at the Winter Olympics earlier this year with its branding slapped everywhere at every event, going so far as to release a special Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Olympics Games Edition, unveiled just before the competition started. Probably to Samsung’s behest, there is only one event that is arguably more watched than the Olympics and that event is the FIFA World Cup, for which the Official Partner is none other than Sony. And earlier this week, Sony released a commercial to celebrate that the Sony Xperia Z2 is the official smartphone of the World Cup 2014:
With an emphasis on “feeling every detail”, something that should be very possible with the Z2′s Triluminos display, Sony’s commercial tries to sell the Z2 on the basis that not everyone is going to be at the World Cup, though from the reports that are coming out of Brazil recently, it seems like most of us are better off not being there at all. Relatedly, Sony is also hosting the Sony Football Challenge, for which Sony is offering some very generous prizes. All you have to do is correctly guess the scores of all 64 World Cup matches. Easy, right? For more details, check out Sony’s website here.
Are you going to be watching the World Cup? What nation are you supporting? Let us know who in the comments below.
Source: YouTube via Phone Arena
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