Contest-winning Moto 360 watch face blends classic looks with modern tech
Motorola has been running a watch face design contest to spark interest in developing for its upcoming Moto 360 wristwear, and it looks like the company’s efforts have hit the jackpot. The winning design from David Pascual is a clever blend between a traditional timekeeper and the at-a-glance alerts you’d expect from Android Wear. On top of basic status info, the watch face also has customizable notification widgets; you’ll know right away if you have new Gmail or a low battery. Pascual’s effort is just eye candy right now, but that may change soon. Winning the competition could get his design featured on the Moto 360, so you may have a chance to check it out first-hand before long.
Filed under: Wearables, Mobile, Google
Source: Official Motorola Blog, Motorola (Google+)
Balloons could power space tourism by 2016
Richard Branson is investing in a plane that’ll take tourists to the edge of space, but who needs that when you’ve got balloons? A company in Arizona is working on a high-altitude craft that’ll use a huge balloon to gently carry passengers voyagers to the edges of the atmosphere. It’s already tested the technology with a 10-percent size scale model, which carried and safely returned a payload of 200 kilos. The next step is to build a full-sized equivalent, capable of journeying 120,000 feet into the air and back again — just short of the 127,852 feet that Felix Baumgartner fell during the Red Bull Stratos experiment / publicity stunt. Of course, anything that involves a trip to space (or as close as anyone can say) is going to be expensive, and it’ll set you back $75,000 if you choose to get in line when commercial trips begin in 2016.
Filed under: Transportation
Via: Yahoo
Source: World View Experience
Moto 360 smartwatch makes an appearance at Google I/O
Samsung’s Gear Live and LG’s G Watch have already been manhandled today at Google I/O 2014, and now it’s time to do the same to the third inaugural Android Wear device, the Moto 360. We’ve already heard much about the watch’s unique circular design and have gotten some sneak peeks at the various watch faces that are coming to take advantage of it. Today, however, I finally got my mitts on one, and I can assure you it’s as well put together in person as the press shots have shown previously.
The Moto 360 strikes a stunning pose on your wrist, particularly in its stainless steel (as opposed to black) garb. Fit and finish of the devices we saw was top notch. The chamfered edges of both the glass covering the screen and that metal housing lend it a luxurious look and feel, and the thick, split leather strap is premium, too. We thought it odd that the company chose to have the glass extend beyond the watch’s metal housing, when the trend in mobile screens is for there to be zero gap between the surface of the glass and the pixels beneath them.
So, we asked Lior Ron, Motorola’s wearable products lead, why his watch design went the other way. He informed us that it’s a “nod to the premium watch aesthetic” he wanted to achieve with the 360, as many regular watches have chamfered glass, too. That bit of design flair has the added benefit of showing off the circular display to the fullest — looking closely reveals that pixels are packed from edge to edge, no cutting corners.
For now, that’s really all we can tell you about the 360 — that it’s a beautiful and sizable smartwatch. Like LG and Samsung, Motorola had the 360 running a demo mode of Android Wear, so we couldn’t get a feel for how the watch actually will work. That said, Motorola’s on its way to proving that sometimes, it’s not hip to be a square.
Apple Seeds OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 Build 13E25 to Developers [Mac Blog]
Apple today seeded build 13E25 of OS X 10.9.4 to developers, just under a week after seeding the third OS X 10.9.4 beta, build 13E19, and more than a month after the public release of OS X 10.9.3, which included enhanced support for 4K displays and syncing improvements.
The beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Mac Dev Center.
It remains unclear what improvements the 10.9.4 update will bring to Mavericks, but it is likely to include bug fixes and stability enhancements. Apple is asking developers to focus on Graphics Drivers, Bluetooth, Audio Drivers, Finder, App Store, and Safari.
(Product) RED Thanks Apple for Contributions Totaling $75 Million, Explains Recent Comments From Bono
Apple’s (Product) RED contributions towards the fight against AIDS now total $75 million, according to a blog post on the (RED) website. The post, which thanks Apple for its generous contributions, notes that the company is (Product) RED’s biggest partner.
(RED) also addresses commentary from U2 frontman Bono, who leads the charity. At the Cannes Lions festival earlier this week, Bono and Apple design chief Jony Ive gave an interview where Bono commented on Apple’s reluctance to use heavy (RED) branding, calling it “modesty run amok.”
According to the (RED) blog post, Bono was simply teasing Ive and Apple about its reluctance to “take credit for its charitable work,” going on to say that his humor was taken out of context and confirming that both Bono and (RED) are “so grateful” to Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, Jony Ive, and the rest of Apple’s employees
In a reminder that humor doesn’t always travel out of context, some of Bono’s teasing and faux outrage at Apple’s modesty were reported as actual criticism of the company. Nothing could be further from the truth of course. Bono has been one of Apple’s biggest supporters, pushing back publicly on those who have made negative assumptions about the company’s charitable work, simply because they don’t shout it from the rooftops. That modesty is their right, and in many ways admirable.
According to The Loop‘s Shaun King, Apple may be planning to increase support for (RED) in the coming months. Following Bono’s interview, King posted the following: “Great to see Bono calling Apple out on their “understated” approach to this issue. But you’ll see that change within six months,” clarifying in the comments that Apple will boost exposure for (RED).
It is unclear how Apple will boost exposure, but in the past, the company has released several different (RED) branded products, including iPod nanos and shuffles, iPad Smart Covers, iPhone Bumpers, and more, with a portion of the purchase price going directly to the charity. It has also decorated its Apple retail locations with red logos for World AIDS day and last year, Ive teamed up with designer Marc Newson to create a range of one-of-a-kind products that were auctioned off by Sotheby’s, with the proceeds going to (RED).
In total, with all of its partners, which includes Apple, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and others, (Product) RED has raised more than $250 million to fight AIDS since it was founded in 2006.
Google I/O 2014: Android TV announced, goes public this fall with Android L
An app update hit the Play Store yesterday that listed out Android TV compatibility, so it wasn’t much of a secret that Android TV was going to be announced at Google I/O. During the keynote today they went over the key aspects of what Android TV was all about. First off, you won’t have to […]
Google I/O 2014: Chromecast’s new Backdrop feature and Device Mirroring
Android TV was a big thing today. The UI looks beautiful, the multiple control methods are fantastic and gaming looks outstanding. What about the Google Chromecast? Google isn’t dropping it off the face of the planet, not just yet anyways. Later in the event Google talked about what is coming to the Chromecast. They […]
You can now edit articles, view random pages on the Android Wikipedia app
Wikipedia already has an app, but get ready to meet its replacement. Available on Android starting today, the app’s not just an aesthetic refresh; it adds the ability to edit entries directly from your mobile device. For those of us who use Wikipedia solely for browsing, that feature won’t matter, but for active community members it’s an important improvement.
Unlike the previous version, the new app is built on native Android, which should make for a more fluid experience navigating through pages. The interface is still streamlined and simple, with a menu bar which you can swipe up from the left. From there, you can log in, view your history, manage your saved pages or be taken to a random article. The random article feature is one of the best aspects of Wikipedia on the desktop — how else would I have learned about the WEC 11 martial arts event? — so users will definitely appreciate the Wikimedia Foundation listening to their feedback. Alas, the new Wikipedia app still doesn’t allow for tabbed browsing, but at least the aforementioned history feature lets you keep track of your activity.
If you currently have the Android Wikipedia app, an update will get you the new and improved version. Users on iOS, meanwhile, will have to wait till July to get the additional functionality.
Filed under: Internet, Software
Source: Google Play
‘Cardboard’ is Google’s attempt at an inexpensive VR headset
Even Google is getting in on the virtual reality game. At the end of the search giant’s I/O 2014 keynote, Sundar Pichai announced that everyone in attendance would get a nondescript cardboard package but was coy about its contents. Turns out, it’s the firm’s attempt at a do-it-yourself VR headset. You can use household materials to build one, and a rubber-band to hold your smartphone in place on the front of the device. Assembly instructions, plans and links for where to source the needed parts (like lenses) — as well as an SDK — are available on the project’s website. Have a few pizza boxes laying around? So long as they’re from an extra-large pie, Google says they’ll work, too. Mountain View hopes that by making the tech inexpensive (unlike offerings from, say, Oculus), developers will be able to make VR apps that hit a wider audience. For now, the list of fully supported phones includes the Google Nexus 4 and 5, the Moto X, Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5 and, oddly enough, the original Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
Cardboard pairs with your handset via NFC, and there’s already a handful of demos for the app. How the project works with Google Earth, YouTube and Photo Sphere seems pretty self explanatory (the standard experiences for those, but on your face), but Exhibit, Street Vue and Windy Day are a little more intriguing. Exhibit allows you to gawk at cultural artifacts form every angle, according to its description, while Street Vue consists of a drive through Paris and Windy Day is an interactive animated short.
Sure, this seems like little more than a novelty compared to the likes of the Oculus Rift, but even with that influx of cash from Facebook, Oculus still needs to charge for each headset. With Cardboard, Google has probably undercut everyone in the field on one of the most important aspects: price.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Source: Google Cardboard, Google Play, Chrome Experiments
This is what Plex looks like on Android TV
Hot on the heels of all the Google I/O announcements today, the good people at Plex have let us know that a new version of is on the way for the newly launched Android TV. Plex for Android TV isn’t a rehash of the Google TV app, but a whole new creature built for the new system. Coupled with Android TV’s lovely new UI and features like voice control Plex says users will have access to all-new ways to enjoy their media. We have to admit we’re seriously excited to get our hands on yet another way to get Plex into our lives. None of this is available just yet of course, so while we wait have a peek at some screen of what the new system will look like.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Source: Plex Blog
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