Moto G with LTE now available
Motorola are offering up the Moto G with LTE support on their website for $219 in both black and white.
The budget smartphone is a great little device, and now you can now grab it with 4G.
It is available with 8GB of internal storage but the LTE variant of the Moto G comes with a microSD card slot to raise it to 32GB.
The post Moto G with LTE now available appeared first on AndroidGuys.
FiftyThree’s Pencil stylus set to level up with pressure sensitivity on iOS 8
Even though FiftyThree’s Pencil stylus can’t completely replace a proper digital pen and tablet, it’s at least getting better over time. For instance, the arrival of iOS 8 will finally give it pressure sensitivity — bad news is, you’d have to wait for the mobile OS before you can take advantage of the new feature. Once you get the update for Apple’s latest platform, you’d have greater control over your lines: you can draw thin, mechanical pencil-like sketches by using only the very tip of the device, or shade objects using its thicker side. Depending on how much you’ve been using Pencil, these lines might not be as precise as anything you draw using a Wacom tablet. But you might be able to get pretty close, so long as you maneuver the stylus with expertise. It’s a shame you’d have to wait till fall to try it out, but note that a new iOS 8 beta’s rumored to come out soon. We don’t know whether this beta update will enable Pencil’s new capability, but keep an eye out if you absolutely can’t wait.
Spire breathing monitor can tell if you’re stressed, relaxed or focused
Samsung’s Galaxy S5 is supposed to be able to measure stress, but there’s something about its “heart-rate variability” test that just isn’t very convincing. (Namely, if you enjoy a brisk walk and raise your heart-rate slightly, the phone will sometimes report an increase in “stress.”) By contrast, a new hip-worn sensor called “Spire” ignores your pulse in favor of monitoring breathing patterns instead. Its creators claim that these patterns can reveal periods of “tension, relaxation and focus,” as well as allowing standard fitness tracking.
Until we get the chance to review the Spire, we can’t say for sure if it’ll be any more meaningful than Samsung’s approach — but it’s at least backed up by science (and funding) from Stanford University. (Besides, from a purely selfish tech blogger’s perspective, some detailed mental analysis could be a nice distraction on days when there’s been no actual, physical activity to speak of.) The Qi-charging, iOS-pairing Spire is up for pre-order today at a price of $150, but you might find it on a temporary discount if you’re quick.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables, Mobile
Source: Spire
Qplay’s video streaming service is now on Chromecast
When TiVo founders Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton announced their curated video stream service called Qplay earlier this year, the only way you could play those queues — or “Qs” — on your TV was if you also purchased the Qplay TV adapter for $49. Otherwise, you could only view them on the iPad app, which was opened up to everyone only a couple of months ago. Starting today, however, you can relay those video playlists to your television with a Chromecast as well, which is about $14 less and a whole lot more versatile. “We wanted to bring Qplay to a larger audience,” says Phil Peterson, the CEO of Qplay, as the reason behind opening it up to Chromecast. “We definitely want to expand the number of devices that Qplay can play on.”
Further, the company is also introducing “Party Qs,” which are video feeds that you and a group of friends can collaborate on together for viewing parties. You can also now add a hashtag to your Qs such as #worldcup or #nba so that they’re easily searchable. Last but not least, Qplay has also added support for Facebook login. At last, it seems, Qplay is attempting to really break into the mainstream with its short-form video streaming service. If that sounds like an interesting proposition for you, head over to the source for more info or peek at the introduction video below.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Qplay
Terrain Android launcher helps you organize and find your content
Samsung’s Accelerator division has just spawned a new Android launcher that aims to help you see and find everything on your phone. Called Terrain, it resembles a stock Android home screen at first glance, but from there you can launch the three main features. The first is the Sidebar which brings up your content in familiar card form with a swipe from the left, letting you glance your top Spotify songs, Facebook news feed, Instagram pictures, Reddit threads and more. You can then tap each card for a deeper dive. The Phone Search option checks all your apps and contacts and also searches the web, Google Maps, Play or Yelp, to name a few. Finally, there’s the alphabetically organized All Apps drawer to see your programs at a glance. So how well does it work? Read on for more.
I’ve played with a lot of launchers, including Nova and Aviate, and Terrain seems quite robust for a first release. It was fairly simple to add and edit content from the sidebar, helped along by the initial launch suggestions. After a little time, I had a sidebar showing Facebook feeds, favorite contacts, a calendar, Spotify tracks, my Instagram feed and for lulz, the xkcd cartoon, all organized how I wanted. There are 60 content cards in total from categories like utilities, local (weather and traffic), social and news. Searching contacts was more convenient than using Samsung’s stock contact app and let me dial or send a text message without fussing. It was also arguably quicker to search less-used apps that weren’t on my home page, like Vivino. Finally, the app seemed just as fluid as my go-to launcher, Nova.
Though reasonably glitch-free, it was occasionally a bit slow to find feeds like technology (which include feeds from Engadget, Re/Code, CNET and the Verge). In addition, it was missing a few key social apps like Vine and requires you to download separate apps to pull feeds from Instagram and Spotify — a bit of a kludge. But it seemed stable on my last-gen Galaxy Note II with KitKat and came with enough news, social and entertainment apps to be useful right away — and the folks behind it said that more cards and content are rolling out soon. If you feel like giving it a try yourself, check Terrain’s home page or download it from Play.
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile
Source: Terrain
Amazon’s smartphone is an AT&T exclusive, says The Wall Street Journal
Tomorrow, Amazon is going to lift the lid on its not-so-top secret smartphone project, answering questions like “why?” and “how will six cameras and a 3D screen help you sell more books?” Before the big reveal, however, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T has already signed a deal to become the exclusive home of the handset. AT&T signing an exclusive deal for a smartphone being developed by a website? Let’s hope whatever comes, we don’t see another HTC First or HTC Status…
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Amazon, AT&T
Via: Reuters
Source: WSJ
Clarification: Does Xbox One have 10% more horsepower without Kinect?
Here’s the short answer, right up front: no. The long, more explanatory answer is more complex of course.
Last week at E3 2014, GameTrailers host and well-known video game dude Geoff Keighley tweeted this:
After @xboxp3 interview I’ve been asking devs about impact of new Xbox sdk on perf. Bungie says it will get Destiny to 1080p/30fps on XB1.
– Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) June 10, 2014
The “Xboxp3″ Twitter handle he referenced belongs to Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox at Microsoft (we interviewed him last week as well, right here), and the “new Xbox SDK” he referenced is part of the June update that the Xbox One received. In said update, developers received a new software development kit that — according to a statement Microsoft released at the time — “allows access to up to 10 per cent additional GPU performance.” So that solves it, right? Not quite.
Microsoft’s Ken Lobb, longtime Xbox team member (and namesake of GoldenEye 64 weapon, the Klobb), explains the situation more thoroughly in an interview with Eurogamer. “Lots of people ask, ‘so, you’re taking back the GPU reserve for Kinect. Well, does that mean I can’t say, ‘Xbox, record that?’ No. You can always say that,” Lobb says. In so many words, some folks worried that, with the new SDK, much of the Kinect functionality they’ve come to love accept will be taken away. Not so, says Lobb.
The SDK update does take advantage of the originally reserved CPU for Kinect, but it’s a variable system that allows Xbox Ones with and without Kinect to use the extra horsepower. “You have to count for that whether you’re using Kinect or not. But you get the full memory and the full bandwidth,” he explains.
So, does Xbox One get 10 percent more CPU performance without Kinect? No. The answer is still no. But the Xbox One did get an update in June which enabled developers — including Bungie, as we previously noted — to use more of the Xbox One’s horsepower reserves. Everyone wins! We think!
Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD, Microsoft
Source: Eurogamer
Higgs boson pioneers are knighted by the Queen
Two UK scientists connected to the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 have been awarded one of Britain’s highest honors. As part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours, professors Tom Kibble and Tejinder Virdee were knighted for their roles in helping find the elusive “god” particle, although they did so in very different ways. Kibble is widely revered for his co-discovery of the Higgs mechanism in the mid-1960s, which helped explain why the particles have mass. Virdee, on the other hand, played a crucial role in developing the concept of CERN’s particle-detecting Compact Muon Solenoid (or CMS) in 1990. Decades later, scientists at CERN detected the Higgs boson using CMS and another detector, ATLAS.
The award is particularly sweet for Professor Kibble, after he was overlooked for the Nobel Prize in Physics last year. Peter Higgs, after whom the particle is named, and Francois Englert were chosen to receive the award, excluding the three other physicists who first developed the theory. Tom Kibble was one of the three, with Gerald Guralnik Carl Hagen also missing out. Higgs was quick to highlight Kibble’s exclusion, noting that he was “the obvious candidate” to be the third scientist honoured by the Nobel Committee (awards are limited to three recipients). You can read more about how the pioneering work of Higgs, Kibble and Virdee influenced the discovery of the Higgs boson here, here and here.
[Image credit: Imperial College London]
Source: BBC News
Engadget giveaway: win a Cloud Frame and 1TB of storage courtesy of nixplay!
Let’s face it, we all probably know someone who isn’t online (or doesn’t quite know how to get there). So having a way to share our endless stream of food pics family photos to a frame in their home or office, without any effort on their part, seems like a sine qua non. Nixplay offers just that with its digital Cloud Frame, and the company has given us two of the 15-inch models and 1TB of cloud storage for a pair of lucky Engadget readers this week. The frame let’s you curate slideshows using its web interface and even lets you pull in content from your social media hubs like Facebook and Instagram. You can also set up an address book and share photo sets to different Cloud Frames anywhere in the world, as long as they’re connected to WiFi. Just be careful, this isn’t SnapChat and the photos will be on display to anyone in the room. You can enter up to three times, so just head down to the RaffleCopter widget below for your chance at winning this Cloud Frame and online storage combo.
- Entries are handled through the Rafflecopter widget above. Comments are no longer accepted as valid methods of entry. You may enter without any obligation to social media accounts, though we may offer them as opportunities for extra entries. Your email address is required so we can get in touch with you if you win, but it will not be given to third parties.
- Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
- Winners will be chosen randomly. Two (2) winners will each receive one (1) nixplay 15-inch Cloud Frame W15A and 1TB (one terabyte) of cloud storage.
- If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email or Facebook login. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
- This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. nixplay and Engadget / AOL are not held liable to honor warranties, exchanges or customer service.
- The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
- Entries can be submitted until June 18th at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile, Alt
Apple Settles State and Consumer Class Action E-Book Price Fixing Lawsuit [Mac Blog]
According to a letter filed in the Southern District Court of New York, Apple has reached an out-of-court settlement with both class action lawyers and state district attorneys over e-book price-fixing, reports Bloomberg.
Settlement details remain sealed and must be approved by the court. If approved, this agreement will end litigation ahead of a potentially costly damages trial that was slated to begin July 14. Apple faced more than $800 million in damages in this class-action antitrust lawsuit involving both consumers and states.
Steve Berman, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said by phone that all the U.S. attorneys general and consumers settled the case. Berman said he filed a memorandum of understanding with the court under seal, which prevents him from describing the agreement.
In an earlier decision, Apple was found guilty of conspiring to fix e-book prices in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. As part of its preparations for launching the iBookstore alongside the iPad in 2010, Apple sought to weaken Amazon’s hold on the industry and change the business model that governed the sale of e-books, an effort that resulted in higher prices for consumers. Apple filed an appeal in that case earlier this year.
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